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NOTES 



ON THE 



PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES 



OF 



BAPTIST CHURCHES 



1 

FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

ft 




NEW YORK: 

BltELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO., 115 NASSAU STREET. 

BOSTON: GOULD & LINCOLN. 
CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & CO. 



1857. 



— **» 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

FRANCIS WAYLAND, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Rhode Island. 



STEREOTYPED HY 
TnOMAB 15. SMITH, 

82 & 84 Beekman-st, N.Y. 



PRINTED BY 
E. O. JENKINS, 

22 Frankfort-st., N.Y. 



' i 



P E E F A E. 



The present volume contains the papers which lately 
have appeared in The Examiner, over the signature of 
"Roger Williams." It was the intention of the author 
to limit the series to eight or ten numbers; subject after 
subject was, however, suggested to him for discussion, 
until it attained its present magnitude. It assumes a 
more permanent form, in compliance with what is sup- 
posed to be the wish of its former readers. 

The main object of the author has been to present 
a popular view of the distinctive belief of the Baptist 
denomination, and to urge upon his brethren a practice 
in harmony with their profession. That this humble 
effort to promote the spirituality and efficiency of a 
portion of the church of Christ may be accepted by 
the Master, is the earnest prayer of the author. 

PROvnoEXCE, October 28, 1856. 



CONTENTS. 



i. 

PAGE 

Baptists have no Authoritative Confessions of Faith. — The Absence 
of such Confession a Cause of Union rather than Division 13 



II. 

Baptist Views of the Trinity, the Law, Human Depravity, the Atone- 
ment, Particular and General 16 



III. 

Extent of the Atonement. — Regeneration. — Preaching Christ.— 
Manner of Preaching, and Reason of it 20 

IV. 

Baptist Preaching formerly extempore, that is, without written prep- 
aration. — Advantages of this mode of preaching for the cultiva- 
tion of Pulpit Eloquence 23 

V. 

Objections to unwritten Discourses. — These not peculiar to this mode 
of Public Address 27 



VL 

Language of our early Preachers universally understood. — Their 
Discourses abounded in illustrations drawn chiefly from the 
Scriptures 30 



VI CONTENTS. 

VII. 

PAGE 

Objection answered. — Men of Sense desire Proaching which will 
move their Consciences. — Error of tho older Preachers. — Our 
Error the Opposite 35 



VIII. 

Ministers decreasing in Number.-— Older Preachers urged Men to 
immediate Repentance. — Their Preaching Experimental 39 



IX. 

Effects of Preaching on Experimental Religion on Saints and Sinners. 
— Discriminating Preaching necessary to the Success of the Gospel. 43 



X. 

Baptist Views of Qualifications for the Ministry.— We are bound by 
the Apostolic Rule. — Our Circumstances not essentially different 
from those of tho early Christians 47 



x i :. 

It is possible to believe our Principles and act at variance with 
them. — Change in Thirty-live Years.— Tho Reason of tho Saviour's 
Rule 62 



XII. 

By carrying out these Views wo should have such a Ministry as 
Christ hat appointed, a more numerous Ministry, a Ministry 
adapted to the various wants of Men. — Consequences of tho 
opposite view 57 



CONTENTS. VU 

XIII. 

PAGE 

Objections considered. — Frequent Changes of Ministers. — Ministerial 
Support. — Our condition demands a Ministry that can in part sap- 
port itself. — Labor with the hands degrades no one. — Dr. Alex- 
ander's friend Mr. Shelburno 62 



XIV. 

"What should be done to improve our Ministry. — Education of our 
Children. — Ministers' Duty in this Matter. — Higher Education for 
those designed for it. — Theological Seminaries. — These views 
eminently favorable to Ministerial Education 72 



XV. 

Universal Obligation resting on all the Disciples of Christ to la- 
bor personally fjr Him.— Sunday-schools. — Colporteurs. — -General 
Inefficiency of Professors of Religion 79 



XVI. 

Baptists acknowledge the sole Authority of the New Testament in 
opposition to Tradition and Decrees of Councils. — Baptism, the 
Mode of Administering this Ordinance which we consider obliga- 
tory 85 



XVII. 

Subjects of Baptism. — Reason why Baptists do not Baptize Infants. 
— We are not convinced by the views given in favor of Infant 
Baptism. — Its effect upon the Church 93 



XVIII. 

Mode of Admission to the Ministry by the Church. — No better 
Method. — But Churches must do their Duty in this Matter. — 
Entering the Ministry merely as an agreeable Profession 99 



vill CONTENTS. 

XIX. 

PAGE 

Evidences of a Call to the Ministry our own Consciousness and the 
Consciousness of our Brethren. — Duty of a Church to a Candidate. 
— Mistakes in this Matter 106 



XX. 

Ordination. — Its Nature. — Importance of examination of the Can- 
didate. — In no other manner can the Ministry be improved 114 



XXI. 

The points in which we differ from other Sects important. — The 
manner in which we have escaped the errors into which others 
have fallen 121 



XXII. 

Hereditary Membership at variance with the idea of the Spirituality 
of the Church. — Tendency of Infant Baptism to establish Hered- 
itary Membership 125 



XXIII. 



Other Truths to which Baptists have borne Testimony. — The Spir- 
ituality of the Church of Christ. — The Right of Private Judgment. 
— The Sufficiency of the New Testament as our Rule of Faith and 
Practice. — The Separation of the Church from the State 130 



XXIY. 

Approximation of other Sects to the Principles held by Baptists.— 
The Spirituality of the Church. — The Sufficiency of the New 
Testament as our Rule of Faith. — Liberty of Conscience 139 









CONTENTS. IX 

XXV. 

PAGE 

Points in which we have erred by imitation of others. — Church 
Music 14? 

XXVI. 

Change of opinion respecting Church Music. — Church Architecture . 153 

XXYII. 

Sabbath Services. — Posture in Prayer. — Reading Notices. — Formula 
in Baptism. — Services at Weddings and Funerals 158 

XXVIII. 

Relations between the Church and the Congregation. — Gradual 
change in this respect. — Unfortunate position of a Minister 165 

XXIX. 

Preaching to build up a Society. — Vestry Services. — Church Discip- 
line. — Amusements. — Honesty in Mercantile Dealing ltl 

XXX. 

Independence of the Churches. — Can a Church properly be rep- 
resented ? Ill 

XXXI. 

Attempts to form a Baptist representation have failed. — Baptist 
General Convention. — Missionary Union. — No one of all our 
Benevolent Associations represent the Baptist Denomination. . . . 183 

XXXII. 

Love to the Saviour the bond which must unite Baptists to each 
other. — Errors to be avoided in conducting Benevolent Associa- 
tions. — The special object of a Church must not be transcended. 
— Infant Dedication. — Concluding Reflections 190 

i* 



X CONTENTS. 

XXXIII. 

PAGE 

Importance of Public Worship. — The Duty of the Disciples of Christ 
to maintain it. — With us, this Duty requires a universal effort. — 
Difficulties peculiar to our condition 199 

XXXIY. 

Facilities in our Condition for Extension. — Our latest Statistics show 
a great need of Ministers of the Gospel 206 

XXXV. 

In our present condition what is to be done ? — Can Theological Sem- 
inaries and Colleges supply our Need? — The answer given by 
Statistics. — We need a great number of Ministers, and we need 
that every Minister be made as efficient as possible 212 

XXXYI. 

The Gifts which Christ, on his Ascension, received for his Church. — 
These Gifts bestowed in Answer to Prayer. — What is Effectual 
Prayer 219 

XXXVII. 

Duty of Baptists in new Settlements, where their number is small, 
to know each other, meet together for Worship, organize Sabbath- 
schools, and seek out for Gifts for the Ministry among themselves. 226 

XXXVXIL 

Duty of feeble Churches to rely, under God, on themselves ; to cul- 
tivate Talent for the Ministry among their own Members. — Always 
hold Worship on the Sabbath. — Pay a Ministering Brother for his 
Time and Expenses; be not ashamed of him if he be a Laboring 
Man 232 

XXXIX. 

Objection, We are Few and Weak, etc. — Would this justify your 
Course in Converts from Heathenism, or in the Times of the Apos- 
tles ? — This excuse savors of Pride, not Humility. — Example of 
the Church in Hamburg 240 



CONTENTS. XI 

XL. 

PAGE 

Churches in Cities. — Their special Need of Opportunity to labor for 
Christ. — Its Effect upon Individual Piety 247 

XLI. 

Means to be used to Improve the whole Ministry. — Theological Sem- 
inaries. — Colleges. — Academies 255 

XLII. 

Our great Reliance for the Improvement of the Ministry is on the 
Ministry itself. — "What a Minister may do in this "Work. — The 
Blessings that will follow such Labor 261 

XLIII. 

Ministers competent to this "Work. — "Without them it can not be 
done. — Suggestions to those that have the Ministry in Yiew 269 

XLIY. 

Object of Education. — Education not confined to the study of books. 
— Difficulty of acquiring the habit of continuous thought. — Aids 
in acquiring it 276 

XLY. 

Pulpit Assistants. — Different Classes of Sermons. — Doctrinal Ser- 
mons. — Practical Sermons 283 

XLYI. 

Experimental, Expository, and Hortatory Sermons 289 

XLYII. 

Texts.— Why should a Text be taken at all ?— How may it be used? 296 

XLYIIL 

Moral Requisites for Understanding the Scriptures. — Intellectual 
Preparation. — A Knowledge of the Meaning of the "Words, of the 
Context, and of the Manners and Usages of the Time 303 



Xll CONTENTS. 

XLIX. 

PAGE 

Construction of a Sermon. — What is a Sermon ? — Acquaintance with 
the Human Heart, how acquired. — Necessity of unflinching 
mental effort 309 



Importance of Self-reliance. — Saving Fragments of Thought. — 
Introduction and Close of Sermons. — Style proper for Sermons. — 
Mistakes on this Subject 316 



LI. 

Delivery of a Sermon. — The Natural Tones of Emotion. — Length of 
Sermons. — All the Services of Worship to be in Harmony with 
the Sermon. — Foppery. — Talking in the Pulpit 323 



LII. 

Week-day Services. — Lecture or Conference Meetings. — Pastoral 
Visits. — Conversation on Eeligion. — Conclusion 330 



BAPTIST 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES. 



BAPTISTS HAYE NO AUTHORITATIVE CONFESSIONS OF FAITH. — THE AB- 
SENCE OF SUCH CONFESSION A CAUSE OF UNION RATHER THAN DI- 
VISION. 

The question is frequently asked, What is the creed, 
and what are the acknowledged standards of the Bap- 
tist churches in this country ? To this, the general an- 
swer has ever been, " Our rule of faith and practice is 
the New Testament." We have no other authority to 
which we all profess submission. To this it will be re- 
plied by Christians of other denominations, We all 
make the same profession, but we have also our author- 
ized confessions, creeds, and formularies, to which every 
one who enters our churches must subscribe ; they are 
framed by our highest ecclesiastical tribunals, and they, 
to a greater or less extent, govern the profession of all 
our members. It is in this manner alone that our unity 
is preserved, and our members protected from the seduc- 
tions of error. 

To this we answer, Whether an established confession 
of faith is desirable or not, with us it is impossible. We 
believe, in the fullest sense, in the independence of 
every individual church of Christ. We hold that each 



14 NO CONFESSIONS OF FAITH. 

several church is a Christian society, on which is con- 
ferred by Christ the entire power of self-government. 
No church has any power over any other church. No 
minister has any authority in any church, except that 
which has called him to be its pastor. Every church, 
therefore, when it expresses its own belief, expresses the 
belief of no other than its own members. If several 
churches understand the Scriptures in the same way, 
and all unite in the same confession, then this expresses 
the opinions and belief of those who profess it. It, 
however, expresses their belief, because all of them, 
from the study of the Scriptures, understand them in 
the same manner ; and not because any tribunal has 
imposed such interpretations upon them. We can not 
acknowledge the authority of any such tribunal. We 
have no right to delegate such an authority to any man, 
or to any body of men. It is our essential belief that 
the Scriptures are a revelation from God, given not to 
a Pope, or a congregation of Cardinals, or an Arch- 
bishop, or a bench of Bishops, or a General Assembly, 
or a Synod, but to every individual man. They were 
given to every individual that he might understand 
them for himself, and the word that is given him will 
judge him at the great day. It is hence evident that 
we can have no standards which claim to be of any au- 
thority over us. This, however, in no manner prevents 
those who are agreed from working together, and co- 
operating in every form of Christian effort, and uniting 
in every manifestation of brotherly love. 

If the question be asked, How are we saved from di- 
visions and heresies ? we reply, by asking again, How 
are other denominations saved from them ? Have 



UNITY OF BAPTISTS. 15 

creeds and confessions any power either to create or to 
preserve unity ? Have they done it in the Papal, the 
Episcopal, the Lutheran, or the Presbyterian churches ? 
Nay, where a creed is most strictly imposed, and even 
established by law, there is the divergence in sentiment 
from it the most remarkable. A large proportion, per- 
haps the majority, of the members of the Lutheran 
church, believe no more in the doctrines of Luther than 
in the doctrines of Confucius. 

We reply, secondly, that this very absence of any es- 
tablished creed is in itself the cause of our unity. If 
the Bible be a book designed for every individual man, 
and intended to be understood by every man, then the 
greatest amount of unity attainable among men of di- 
versified character, will be produced by allowing every 
one to look at it and study it for himself. Here is an 
inspired record allowed to be pure truth. The nearer 
the opinions of men approach to its teachings, the 
nearer they approach to each other. Here is a solid 
and definite basis of unity. It is such a unity as is 
adapted to the nature of man as an intelligent and 
accountable being. Other foundation can no man lay 
than that which is laid. If we stand upon this, we can 
not be far distant from each other. 

And the fact has proved the truth of this remark. I 
do not believe that any denomination of Christians ex- 
ists, w T hich, for so long a period as the Baptists, have 
maintained so invariably the truth of their early con- 
fessions. The confessions of the persecuted Baptists in 
the time of Charles II. are almost identical with those 
of our churches of the present day in this country, 
though probably not one in ten thousand of our mem- 



16 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES. 

bers ever heard of their existence. The churches which 
boast of standards of faith and practice, are in this 
respect certainly much less fortunate than ourselves. 
Abundant evidence of this remark will be seen in the 
following numbers. 

While there is, however, this general belief, it may 
be of use to present a brief view of our principles and 
practice, that we ourselves may have the means of veri- 
fying it, and knowing the harmony which exists between 
us and our brethren. The writer of this paper has, 
therefore, thought that a few miscellaneous notes on this 
subject might be acceptable to his brethren. He pre- 
tends to no learning in ecclesiastical history. He has 
no leisure for extensive research, or indeed for any re- 
search whatever. He has, however, had some opportu- 
nity for knowing the opinions and practices of Baptists 
in the northern States, and these he proposes to pre- 
sent as he may find now and then a leisure moment. 
They bind no one, but are the simple record of the ob- 
servation of an individual. 



ii. 

BAPTIST VIEWS OF THE TRINITY, THE LAW, HUMAN DEPRAVITY, THE 
ATONEMENT, PARTICULAR AND GENERAL. 

The theological tenets of the Baptists, both in En- 
gland and America, may be briefly stated as follows : 
they are emphatically the doctrines of the Eeformation, 
and they have been held with singular unanimity and 
consistency. 

In England and America, Baptists have been always 



VIEWS OF THE TRINITY. 17 

Trinitarian. They believe, without exception, that 
there is one only living and true God, and that this 
God is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
Among the Baptists in England, and their descendants 
in America, I have never known or heard of a church 
that has adopted the Unitarian belief. I do not say 
that persons professing Unitarian sentiments may not 
have been convinced of the obligation of the disciples of 
Christ to be baptized by immersion. The belief in bap- 
tism by immersion may be entertained by a man of al- 
most any persuasion, but this alone does not unite him 
with us. He remains in other respects as he was be- 
fore. Our churches, with one accord, always and every 
where have held Unitarianism to be a grave and radical 
error. 

They have also always held that the Law of God, or, 
as it used to be called, the first covenant, required sin- 
less obedience, and that without sinless obedience wo 
could, on legal ground, make no claim to salvation. 

They believe that all men have broken the law ; that 
they are, therefore, under condemnation ; that the car- 
nal mind is enmity against God ; that it is not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so that they 
that are in the flesh can not please God ; and that by 
the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified. Such 
being the case, justification by works is absolutely im- 
possible, and the whole world is guilty before Gocl. 

It is, so far as I know, universally believed that this 
depravity came upon us through the sin of Adam. In 
regard to the manner of the transmission of depravity^ 
there may have been some differences of opinion. The 
more common belief among us has been, that a man, in 



18 THE ATONEMENT. 

consequence of his connection with. Adain, is born with 
a sinful nature. There may be some who believe that 
from circumstances in our constitution, created by the 
fall of our first parents, every man becomes sinful, but 
the number of these is probably small. As to the fact 
of man's universal guilt and desert of punishment, there 
is no difference whatever. 

The belief of the Baptists in regard to the Atonement 
has also been singularly uniform. They have always 
held, that salvation by works having by sin become ut- 
terly impossible, our only hope of eternal life rests upon 
the obedience and death of the Mediator, Christ Jesus. 
We are saved, not in virtue of what we have done, or 
can do, but merely and entirely in virtue of what Christ 
has done for us, and we become partakers of the salva- 
tion which he has wrought out for us, solely by repent- 
ance and faith in the Lord Jesus. 

The extent of the atonement has been and still is a 
matter of honest but not unkind difference. Within 
the last fifty years a change has gradually taken place 
in the views of a large portion of our brethren. At the 
commencement of that period Gill's Divinity was a sort 
of standard, and Baptists imbibing his opinions were 
what may be called almost hyper-Calvinistic. A change 
commenced upon the publication of the writings of 
Andrew Fuller, especially his u Gospel Worthy of all 
Acceptation/' which, in the northern and eastern States, 
has become almost universal. The old view still pre- 
vails, if I mistake not, in our southern and western 
States. This, however, does not interrupt the harmony 
which should subsist among brethren. Dr. Baldwin 
and Dr. Stillman differed in opinion on this subject ; 



PARTICULAR AND GENERAL. 19 

the former following Fuller, the latter adhering to Grill. 
No two ministers, however, ever lived in more fraternal 
intercourse, exchanging with and aiding each other, and 
rejoicing in each other's prosperity, as it became the 
servants of one common Lord. I have known men be- 
lieving the atonement to be limited, preach with great 
acceptance • in New England, where the contrary belief 
prevails almost universally, and the contrary has been 
even more frequently the case. Men, in this respect, 
differ amicably ; and it is found that when their hearts 
are warmed with the love of God and desire for the sal- 
vation of souls, they all preach very much alike. 

It is difficult at the present day to conceive to what 
extent the doctrine of the limited atonement, and the 
views of election w T hich accompanied it, were carried. 
I once knew a popular minister, who used to quote the 
passage, " God so loved the world/' etc., by inserting 
the word elect before world : " God so loved the elect 
world," etc. I was, in the early part of my ministry, 
settled in a respectable town in Massachusetts. One 
of my members, a very worthy man, and the son of a 
Baptist minister, and reputed to be " very clear in the 
doctrines" — (this was the term applied to this form of 
belief) — had an interesting family wholly given up to 
worldliness. I wished to converse w r ith them on the 
subject of personal religion, and mentioned to him my 
desire. He kindly but plainly told me that he did not 
wish any one to converse with his children on that sub- 
ject. If they were elected, God would convert them in 
his own time ; but if not, talking would do them no 
good, it would only make them hypocrites. He was, I 
believe, the last pillar of Gillism then remaining in the 
church. 



20 EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT. 

III. 

EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT. — REGENERATION. — PREACHING CHRIST. — 
MANNER OF PREACHING, AND REASON OF IT. 

In my last number I referred to the change which 
had taken place, in the opinions of Baptists, on the 
subject of the atonement. The question mainly at 
issue was the extent of the gospel sacrifice ; in other 
respects there has ever been, I believe, an entire har- 
mony. It may be well to state briefly what I suppose 
to be the prevailing belief, in this doctrine, at present. 
In the northern and eastern States, it is generally held 
that the whole race became sinners in consequence of 
the sin of the first Adam; and that, on the other hand, 
the way of salvation was opened for the whole race by 
the obedience and death of the second Adam. Never- 
theless, this alone renders the salvation of no one cer- 
tain, for, so steeped are men in sin, that they all, with 
one consent, begin to make excuse, and universally re- 
fuse the offer of pardon. God, then, in infinite mercy, 
has elected some to everlasting life, and, by the influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, renders the word effectual to 
their salvation and sanctification. In his offer of mercy 
he is perfectly honest and sincere, for the feast has been 
provided, and it is spread for all. This does not, how- 
ever, interfere with his gracious purpose to save by his 
sovereign mercy such as he may choose. There is here 
sovereignty, but no partiality. There can be no par- 
tiality, for none have the semblance of a claim ; and, 
if any one perishes, it is not from the want of a full and 
free provision, but from his own wilful perverseness. 
Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life. 



DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION. 21 

As to the doctrine of Kegeneration, its nature, being 
an entire renovation of the moral character in conse- 
quence of a change of the affections, there has always 
been great unanimity among us. So it has been al- 
ways held that the evidence of this change of the af- 
fections is found, not only in the internal character, but 
in the outward life. In all these respects, the doctrines 
of the Baptists in the northern and eastern States 
approach very nearly to those of the first President 
Edwards, and the writers of that class. 

Those who remember the Baptist preachers forty or 
fifty years since, will, I think, call to mind the fact that 
Christ Jesus was, in a particular manner, the burden of 
their discourses. The character of Christ, his wonder- 
ful love, his sufferings and death, his character as 
prophet, priest, and king, his teachings, his example, his 
infinite excellency, the glory which he was shortly to 
bestow upon the believer, his nearness to us at all 
times, specially in the hour of trial and death, were fre- 
quently the topics of their discourses. Thus, the late 
John Williams, the first pastor of Oliver-street church, 
speaking to a friend on the morning of his sudden 
death, said, "I love President Edwards, he always 
speaks so sweetly of Christ/' 

But, it may be said, there is nothing peculiar in 
these sentiments ; they are held by other denominations 
of Christians. Did not Congregationalists, Presbyte- 
rians, and other Calvinistic preachers, treat on all these 
subjects ? I answer yes, but there was still a differ- 
ence, very observable, between the Baptist preachers 
some forty or fifty years since, and their brethren 
holding the same doctrinal sentiments. Whether I can 



22 PREACHING CHRIST. 

convey an accurate conception of this difference or not, 
I am not sure, but I will mention a few of the most ob- 
vious particulars. 

In the first place, our ministers were commonly, I 
might almost say universally, men of no classical edu- 
cation. They were men who had left some secular — 
generally mechanical — employment, for the sake of 
preaching the gospel, and, in doing this, they had suf- 
fered, not prospective, but actual loss. They were im- 
pelled to the ministry by the conviction that they could 
not conscientiously do any thing else. 

There was frequently a struggle in their minds in 
thus giving up all for Christ, not unlike a second con- 
version. As the result of this, it followed that they 
threw their whole souls into the work, in the form of a 
second and unalterable consecration. This, I think, 
gave an earnestness and persistence to their efforts, and 
a simplicity of reliance on the power and grace of Christ 
to aid them, and render their work effectual, which 
have not been so apparent in later times. 

There was at this period, to a very considerable ex- 
tent, a prejudice against learning. This was by no 
means unnatural. They saw that education, rather 
than piety, was in many denominations the test of 
ministerial qualification ; and, instead of assigning to 
it its proper and subordinate place, they abjured it alto- 
gether. This was, doubtless, an error. Are not we 
now liable to the very error against which they con- 
tended ? Be this as it may, there was, undoubtedly, 
in most parts of our country, a prejudice against men 
who were " college learned." A brother whom I knew, 
was, for a while, settled in one of the best Baptist 



PREACHING EXTEMPORE. 23 

churches in any city. He had received a collegiate edu- 
cation. After laboring for a while unsuccessfully, he 
returned to the eastward. One of the members of the 
church was asked why they allowed him to leave. His 
reply was, " He is a good man, a pious man, humble 
and devout, but he is spoiled by too much learning/' 
The fact w r as that his delivery was rather tame : he 
aimed, probably, at correctness rather than power, at 
propriety rather than impressiveness — by-the-by, a very 
common error — and they ascribed these imperfections to 
the fact that he had been through college. 



iy. 

BAPTIST PREACHING FORMERLY EXTEMPORE, THAT IS, WITHOUT WRITTEN 
PREPARATION. — ADVANTAGES OF THIS MODE OF PREACHING FOR THE 
CULTIVATION OF PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 

In my last notes, I mentioned the fact that our min- 
isters of the last generation were not classically edu- 
cated, and that they were generally men impelled to 
leave their secular employments by a conviction that 
they could not otherwise answer a good conscience to- 
ward God. 

I mention another peculiarity. They almost univer- 
sally preached without notes. It was not uncommon to 
distinguish extempore from written discourse by differ- 
ent appellations. 

Delivery without notes was alone called preaching, 
but when a manuscript was used, it was called merely 
reading. Baptists generally considered the latter a 
very different thing from preaching, and they disliked it 



24 ITS AD VANTAGES. 

extremely. They rarely attended the ministry of other 
denominations, even occasionally, where it was prac- 
ticed. As ministers from the East, however, came west- 
ward with their written discourses, the people gradually 
became accustomed to them, but it cost a severe strug- 
gle before they would tolerate the change. It was no 
uncommon thing to see several of the oldest and best 
members of our churches rise and leave the house when 
a minister opened his book and began to read from his 
manuscript. If I do not misremember, I have several 
times seen this myself. 

Now the effect of this mode of introduction to the 
ministry must be manifest. Let us picture to ourselves 
a young man of limited education and retired pursuits, 
who would hardly dare to open his lips in mixed soci- 
ety, impressed with the conviction that it is his duty to 
preach Christ. He must stand up, without any aid 
from writing, and deliver a discourse to a mixed assem- 
bly. The pecuniary sacrifice which he must make is 
nothing in his eyes — this he has willingly made ; but 
how shall he occupy the attention of an audience ? 
He has no accumulated treasures of reading or study 
on which he can rely. He has read little except his 
Bible, but he has been in the habit of studying that 
carefully and prayerfully. He knows that there will be 
before him men older, wiser, and better educated than 
himself. The danger of breaking down, and retiring in 
utter confusion from the great assembly, the fear of los- 
ing his recollection of what he had mentally prepared, 
the conscientious dread of so stating the truth that 
souls may be lost through his imperfection, and the feax 
lest he should offend God by this fear of man that 



ITS ADVANTAGES. 25 

bringeth a snare, all fill him with apprehension. He 
looks to * man for aid, but from this source no help 
comes. He looks to God, and hears the command re- 
peated, " Son of man, preach the preaching that I bid 
thee." He turns his thoughts inward, and the voice 
utters, " Woe is me if I preach not the gospel/' In an 
agony he resorts to prayer. He can find no refuge but 
in the promises of God. Christ has said, " Go ye into 
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, 
and lo, I am with you always/' He begins to take 
courage, but his faith is only a bruised reed. He wres- 
tles with God for help from on high. His faith gains 
strength by the effort. Another promise serves as a 
cordial to his soul. One after another, every earthly 
trust is abandoned, and he is at last enabled to cast 
himself wholly on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit. 
Trembling, hoping, fearing, he goes forth to meet the 
people. His knees smite one against another, as he as- 
cends the pulpit stairs. In a voice scarcely audible, he 
calls upon God for his blessing upon the congregation. 
He commences his sermon. His own voice seems 
strange to him. Gradually he forgets himself, and loses 
his fears. As a prophet from God he delivers his mes- 
sage. The powers of his mind begin to react. He is 
transported beyond himself. He would that the whole 
world were present to hear the story of redeeming love. 
He pours out his soul in earnest entreaty. He warns 
the ungodly, as though he and they were already in 
view of the judgment-seat. Words, burning and im- 
pressive, come unbidden to his bursting heart. The 
time will not allow him to say half that fills his soul. 
He sits down, and thanks God for fulfilling his promise, 

2 



26 WEITTEN DISCOURSES. 

but fears that it can never be thus with him again. 
When he attempts to preach again the same^conflict is 
renewed, until, in preaching, this becomes the habit of 
his soul. This is the school in which our older preach- 
ers were nurtured, and it is difficult to imagine a better 
school for the cultivation of pulpit eloquence. 

Take now the other case. A young man, just in 
opening youth, is converted. He feels a desire to be- 
come a minister of the gospel. He is encouraged by his 
friends to pursue a course of preparatory study. He 
devotes several years to secular learning. He learns, in 
college, to write on any subject of science or literature. 
He pursues the study of theology. He learns to write 
on a sacred theme. He prepares, thoughtfully, a writ- 
ten discourse. He writes it over and over again, and 
it receives the last criticism of his instructors. It is in 
accurate and elegant English, and "fit to preach be- 
fore any congregation." He has asked for the blessing 
of Gi-od in writing it. He does the same before deliver- 
ing it. He takes it in his pocket, and reads it before 
an assembly. He is at first a little fluttered at the 
novelty of his position, but he has no fear of failure, for 
he knows the sermon to be perfectly accurate in doc- 
trine and expression. Where is there here the room for 
burning enthusiasm, for that power which transports 
men ? No one can move others without being deeply 
moved himself. It is in this earnest and deep-felt trust 
in God that the power of the old ministers consisted. 



UNWRITTEN DISCOURSES. 27 



OBJECTIONS TO UNWRITTEN DISCOURSES. — THESE NOT PECULIAR TO TIIIS 
MODE OF PUBLIC ADDRESS. 

In my last number I ventured to offer some remarks 
on written and unwritten discourses. My readers, if 
perchance I am so fortunate as to have any, may pos- 
sibly inquire whether I intend, in this manner, to char- 
acterize these two modes of discourse in general ? 1 
reply, this is not my object. I only intended to com- 
pare them as schools for the cultivation of popular dis- 
course ; and for the sake of illustrating the kind of 
preaching which has, until lately, distinguished the 
Baptist pulpit. 

While on this subject, however, I may perhaps be 
permitted to acid a word or two further. 

The former habit of unwritten discourse was, I know, 
liable to various objections. In the first place, it fre- 
quently led to a sing-song delivery, which was pecul- 
iarly unpleasant. The speaker generally began in an 
under-tone, and seemed oppressed with a consciousness 
of the responsibility which weighed upon him. Gradu- 
ally he warmed with his subject, and became animated. 
At the same time he began to fall into a measured ca- 
dence, rising and falling at regular intervals, and meas- 
uring every sentence by a strict and invariable cantila- 
tion. As he became more in earnest, the tone became 
more distressing, until it was carried to the utmost 
capacity of the speaker's lungs. This habit was so prev- 
alent, that I have known it to be adopted by men of 
very good education. 



28 OBJECTIONS TO 

This is a serious drawback to the power of unwritten 
discourses. I think it arises from bashfulness in a 
young speaker. It is easier, when we are embarrassed, 
to sing than to speak in our natural tones. The one 
requires a degree of self-possession not demanded by the 
other. Hence, Methodists and Quakers have generally 
fallen into it. Among the latter it exists in all its for- 
mer intensity, especially among the female preachers of 
that sect. 

This, however, is not necessarily associated with un- 
written discourse. Lawyers always speak without writ- 
ing, and they never fall into it. In legislative assem- 
blies we never hear it. The English Baptists rarely 
read their discourses, and yet they have no tone. Eob- 
ert Hall, the first preacher of his age, spoke from a 
brief memoranda. Among our preachers in this coun- 
try, I have not heard a sermon toned for many years. 
The way in which this habit may be prevented is ob- 
vious. The young man who wishes to improve his tal- 
ent for preaching, should commence in the conference- 
room, or in a small assembly, where he will be able to 
maintain complete self-command, and cultivate the 
tones of earnest conversation. These form the true 
foundation of all good speaking. When he can speak 
with ease here, let him proceed a step further, and ad- 
dress larger assemblies. In this manner he will carry 
with him his natural tones of earnest address, and will 
be saved from a habit which must render his manner 
unacceptable to a large portion of his audience. Many 
of the Methodist ministers, by following this mode of 
preparation, have attained to distinguished excellence 
as pulpit orators. 



UNWRITTEN DISCOURSES. 29 

But it will be said that this manner of preaching is 
unfavorable to study and reflection, and that a preacher 
thus falls into mere common-place exhortation, without 
order, plan, or object. This may be true, but not by 
necessity. There would seem to be greater need of a 
plan in an unwritten than a written discourse, for with- 
out some plan an extempore preacher is liable at every 
moment to break down. But do we escape this diffi- 
culty by written discourses ? Are not written dis- 
courses frequently, in fact, extempore, without either 
plan or object ? Do we not many times hear the com- 
plaint concerning them, that the discourse was well 
written, but that no one could discover what the speak- 
er was aiming at ? Are not written discourses fre- 
quently occupied in proving what no one ever doubted, 
or in generalizing some important truth until it has 
lost all practical application. In this, respect, therefore, 
the difference is not so great as is commonly supposed. 

But it is also said that men who preach without writ- 
ing naturally tend to sameness, that they have but few 
sermons, and that whatever be the text, these sermons 
are sure to be repeated, until an audience grows weary 
of hearing the same ideas in the same words month 
after month, if not Sabbath after Sabbath. This may 
be true, and it must be confessed there is danger of it. 
But is the danger removed by adopting the other 
method ? Are not written sermons preached over and 
over again, until the manuscript is worn out by use ? 
Is it not the fact, that many ministers have a stock of 
sermons that will last for a year or two, and that by 
changing from place to place, these last them during a 
lifetime ? 



30 DUTY OF MINISTEES, 

The fact is, that richness of illustration, apposite ness 
of subject, and variety in treating it, do not depend 
upon the manner of address. The cause lies deeper. 
A man who treats the ministry as a profession, and per- 
forms its duties perfunctorily, will soon grow tame, and 
will produce but small moral effect on his audience. 
He will prepare for the pulpit with difficulty, and 
hence we will hear from him the constant complaint of 
the intense labor of preparation. This will be the case 
whatever be the mode of address which he adopts. But 
let him put his own soul into the work. Let him make 
the conversion of souls, not next year, but day by day, 
the business of his life. Let him follow up his Sabbath 
labors by visiting from house to house, calling sinners 
to repentance, and building up saints in their most holy 
£iith. Let him read the Bible until it is as familiar to 
him as a household word, lifting up his soul for the 
teachings of the Holy Spirit, and he will have no diffi- 
culty in finding subjects for sermons. The gospel will 
be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life. 



VI. 

LANGUAGE OF OUR EARLY PREACHERS UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTOOD. — THEIR 
DISCOURSES ABOUNDED IN ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN CHIEFLY FROM THfi 
SCRIPTURES. 

But I find myself to have wandered as far from the 
plan of my discourse, as the most extemporaneous of 
extempore preachers. It is time for me to return, if I 
can, and pick up my thread where I left it. 

I was remarking that there was formerly a difference 



DR. ALEXANDER. 31 

between Baptist and other evangelical ministers, al- 
though both believed essentially the same doctrines. 
In attempting to explain this fact, I referred to the 
education of the larger part of them ; and to the mode 
in which they entered the ministry. This led me to 
consider some of the aspects of written and unwritten 
discourse. I might easily pursue this subject further, 
but I can tarry upon it no longer. I will leave it by 
recommending to every Baptist minister the reading of 
the memoir of the late Dr. A. Alexander, by his son, 
Dr. Alexander, of New York. It is a most interesting 
biography of one of the best men and most remarkable 
preachers of our times. So thoroughly had he trained 
himself to unwritten discourse, that although a volum- 
inous author, he declared that were he on trial for 
his life, he would, rather make his defense without writ- 
ing or even meditating a plea, but merely by possessing 
himself thoroughly of the principles of the case, and 
leaving every thing else to the excitement of the occa- 
sion. 

The circumstances to which I have referred, will serve 
to explain the peculiarity and the success of our early 
ministers. 

In the first place, they were taken from the middle 
walks of life, adding to the scanty education of their 
youth such acquisitions as they were able under great 
difficulty to secure. They were in general very desirous 
of improvement, and availed themselves of every oppor- 
tunity that presented itself for gaining knowledge. 
One of them, who settled early in what was then the 
wilderness of western New York, has told me how he 
snatched the hours and half hours of morning and even- 



32 JOHN BUNTAN. 

ing for mental improvement, while lie was laboring to 
clear up his farm. As the country settled around hirn 
he was a constant attendant on the courts of justice, for 
the purpose of learning how lawyers constructed a plea, 
and of gaining from their example ease and self-pos- 
session in delivery. With this kind of training it is 
obvious that the language of these preachers was not 
the English of books, but the English of common con- 
versation, rendered sober and solemn by the thought to 
which it gave utterance. This is really the language 
by which the masses of men are to be moved. You 
may explain a doctrine, or enforce a duty in so refined 
and eloquent English, that not one in ten of a common 
audience will ever understand you. Men never enter 
fully into the conceptions of a speaker, unless there is a 
common medium of communication between them. 
The more perfectly this medium is understood by both 
parties, the more ready and perfect is the transmission 
of the thought. The common people heard Christ 
gladly. The apostles were observed to be unlearned 
and common men, while they were filling Jerusalem 
with their doctrine. Suppose John Bunyan had been 
senior wrangler at Cambridge, could he ever have writ- 
ten the Pilgrim's Progress ? He might then have 
written a Paradise Lost for scholars, but could he have 
written a book for all ages, all conditions, and for men 
of all nations, and tongues, and languages ? 

It was this plain and honest Anglo-Saxon that our 
fathers used in preaching. Hence the people flocked to 
hear them, because they heard in their own language 
the wonderful works of God. They left the pulpits 
where the truth was adorned with every grace of classic 



INTELLIGIBLE PREACHING. 33 

eloquence, which they could neither understand nor 
feel, and came to attend upon ministrations which ut- 
tered what seemed to them new truth, while it was 
realty the very truth which they had heard oftentimes 
before. The difference was, it was in the one case 
clothed in the English of boobs, in the other in the 
English of conversation. 

Again, it is obvious that men accustomed for years 
to the ordinary avocations of life, lose the capacity for 
following a closely connected series of reasoning. The 
mind grows weary, some link in the chain is lost, then 
follows indistinctness of connection, so that the end is 
irrevocably severed from the beginning. I remember 
once to have heard a very able man deliver a discourse 
admirable throughout, perfectly conclusive, and ele- 
gantly written, to an audience of common and plain 
people, with here and there an educated man. He saw 
by their countenances that he had utterly failed to fix 
the attention of the mass, and was mortified. " I 
might/' said he, " just as well have delivered a lecture 
on noses." And he was right. The discourse gratified 
highly a very small portion of his audience, while to 
the remainder it was almost unintelligible. Had he 
delivered the same ideas in the language of simple, 
earnest conversation, breaking up the continuity here 
and there by illustrations w T hich reflected light on its 
more abstract principles, he would have carried with 
him his whole audience. The ten or fifteen who ad- 
mired the style as it was delivered, might have ex- 
pressed less admiration, but the truth would have beeg. 
as strongly fixed in their minds, and the eight or nine 
hundred would have been deeply interested. Which of 

2* 



34 SCRIPTURAL PREACHING. 

these is the best method of preaching the gospel ? 
Which of them would St. Paul have chosen ? 

This was the advantage of the early Baptist preach- 
ers. They delivered their message in such a manner 
that every body understood them. But besides this, 
they were not often enticed into the fields of literature 
or science. They occupied themselves mainly in the 
study of the Scriptures. From the Bible they drew all 
their illustrations. From the Bible they proved all 
their doctrines. Their language in prayer was almost 
wholly the language of the Scriptures. This gave great 
point to all their sayings, and it placed them in a re- 
gion of thought with which all their audience was fa- 
miliar. They rarely quoted from learned authorities, 
for the simple reason that they did not know of their 
existence. They never attempted to prove a doctrine 
of revelation by an appeal to natural religion, or to the 
necessary relations of things. They had not read John 
Foster's Essay, and therefore had no fear of creating 
an " aversion in men of taste to evangelical religion." 
They believed the Bible to be the word of God, and 
they felt themselves called upon io preach it, and to 
quote it as ultimate truth, though it seemed to the 
Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. 
They did not gain the mighty and the noble, but they 
roused the masses. They were reviled by the tens, but 
the hundreds and the thousands were converted unto 
God. 



OBJECTION ANSWERED. 35 



VII. 

OBJECTION ANSWERED. — MEN - OF SENSE DESIRE PREACHING WHICH WILL 
MOVE THEIR CONSCIENCES. — ERROR OF THE OLDER PREACHERS. — OUR 
ERROR THE OPPOSITE. 

It will be said, in answer to my remarks in the last 
number, that men so illiterate would not be tolerated in 
any pulpit at the present day. The mass of the peo- 
ple are well taught in our common schools, and they 
would be repelled from such uncouth ministrations. 
There is undoubted force in this objection, until we 
consider all the facts in the case. There would be no 
men so illiterate in the pulpit now, were the principles 
to which I have referred, adhered to. The preachers, it 
may well be supposed, would not, by any possibility, be 
excluded from the increased advantages of their con- 
temporaries. They would have as good opportunities 
for education as their hearers. There were no common 
schools, or high schools, or academies open to all, when 
the old ministers entered upon their work. Those who 
came after them would, with the men of their own age, 
receive the benefit of increased advantages for the ac- 
quisition of knowledge. 

Suffer me to illustrate my meaning by relating an 
anecdote. I happened to be present at a great meeting 
a short time since, assembled to deliberate on the sub- 
ject of ministerial education. Among the speakers was 
a learned brother, who urged the absolute necessity of 
the most advanced education for every candidate for the 
ministry, and, as it seemed to some, spoke rather sneer- 
ingly of those who entered upon the work of a clergy- 



36 ERROR OF MODERN PREACHERS. 

man without the most extended acquisitions. He en- 
forced his argument by mentioning the fact, that he 
had lately overheard some boatmen, on a canal-boat, 
discussing some of the latest theories in geology, and 
using them as arguments against the authenticity of 
revelation. He found himself in want of the knowledge 
which these common men possessed, and felt obliged to 
burnish up, and enlarge his knowledge of physical sci- 
ence. The argument seemed conclusive, until a plain 
brother rising, asked the question, " Where did these 
boatmen gain this knowledge ?" Here was a learned 
man, deep in Latin, Greek, German, and metaphysics, 
ignorant of what was known by common boatmen. The 
fact is, that many of our academies, at the present day, 
furnish a better education than most of our colleges did 
thirty or forty years since. And another fact, equally 
evident, is, that it would be far better if our ministers 
were more familiar with the knowledge of the common 
people, even if it were acquired at the loss of much 
which is included in what is called a thorough training 
for the ministry. 

And once more, we deceive ourselves in our estimate 
of what thoughtful and intellectual men want. I have 
known a few eminent men in the several professions. 
They have told me that they do not want this sort of 
aliment. They have enough of the intellectual in their 
daily work. They want discourses directed to the con- 
science, that shall make them feel their moral obliga- 
tions, and render the Sabbath something very different 
from all the other days of the week. Our intellectual 
discourses, in general, have about as much of religion 
as would be suitable for a sober lecture before an 



JOHN LELAND. 37 

Athenseum, or an article in a respectable Eeview. I 
have frequently listened to discourses from the "pulpit, 
which I certainly would not have read on the Sabbath, 
for the simple reason that I should have considered 
them too secular for the holy day. 

But here-— for I wish to tell the whole truth — the 
preaching of the older ministers was liable to many ob- 
jections. Men w r ere apt to use too great freedom in 
the pulpit. They told many anecdotes, and these were 
sometimes strongly tinctured with the ludicrous. There 
was occasionally a want of sobriety in address, and the 
preacher manifestly aimed too low ; instead of trying to 
please the judicious, he was satisfied if he split the ears 
of the groundlings. The peculiar humor of the speaker 
was, at times, too apparent ; and, if a man of lively im- 
agination, he would court a smile when he should win 
a tear. Such was the case with the late John Leland, 
and men of his class. He was a man of rare endow- 
ments, clear-headed, and gifted with great power of 
moving men. His audiences were frequently bathed 
in tears, and, it is said, were as frequently excited 
to laughter. This is bad, and should be always 
reprehended. And yet few men now living have 
been as successful in the conversion of sinners as 
this very John Leland. The men of whom I write 
aimed at one portion of an audience. We aim at the 
opposite portion. In both cases there is an error. The 
souls of learned and unlearned, of wise and unwise, are 
all of equal value in the sight of God. We should 
study such a mode of address as will be acceptable and 
useful to all. The common people heard Christ gladly, 
and yet the Scribes and Phariseeis — the aristocracy in 



38 CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD. 

rank and intellect in Jerusalem — asked ; Whence hath 
this man this wisdom ? for he taught as one having 
authority, and not as the Scribes. It is wrong to ex- 
clude from the benefit of the proclamation of the gospel 
any portion of our hearers. To close the ears of one 
out of ten to our preaching is a sin. But is it not 
equally a sin to close the ears of nine out of ten ; while 
the tenth is the very man who is least likely of them 
all to derive any benefit from our teachings ? 

This, however, is a single instance of a wide-spread- 
ing and most lamentable error. * We select our music 
and hire our performers for the sake of pleasing those 
who spend their evenings at the opera, while the taste 
of a man whose soul is melted by Mear and Old Hun- 
dred, is sneered at. We write our sermons for judges, 
barristers, doctors of the law, learned authors, and pro- 
fessors of science, just as if we had them for our audi- 
ence. We build churches for the accommodation of 
men and women who come to them in splendid equip- 
ages, or in the hope that we shall, by these means, at- 
tract them to come, while the lowly wayfaring man can 
not afford to attend upon our ministrations. Some de- 
nominations have for centuries done thus, and they 
may do it, if their gospel is supported by the power of 
the state. But when Baptists do it, whose whole power 
is in the people, and whose only friends from the be- 
ginning have been the people, it indicates that we know 
not what manner of spirit we are of. 



DECREASE OF MINISTERS. 39 



VIII. 

MINISTERS DECREASING IN NUMBER. — OLDER PREACHERS URGED MEN TO 
IMMEDIATE REPENTANCE. — THEIR PREACHING EXPERIMENTAL. 

It may be objected to what I have written that all 
this is very well, but that it would be impossible ever to 
induce men to enter the ministry if we subjected them 
to so severe a trial. This deserves a moment's consid- 
eration. In the first place, I would ask, What is the 
way of supplying the church with ministers, which the 
Lord has appointed ? It is probable that He knew the 
necessities of his church as well as we, and was able to 
foresee what would be the best manner of supplying 
them. Do we find in the New Testament any of those 
requisites enumerated which many persons now deem 
indispensable ? By what right do we establish rules 
which Christ has not established ? 

But turn to the facts. For about thirty or forty 
years we have changed our views on this subject. Has 
the supply of ministers increased ? Has it not sensibly 
diminished ? Nay, has it not so diminished as to cause 
the gravest apprehensions for the safety of the denomi- 
nation ? Formerly we were obliged to repress the 
earnestness with which men were pressing into the 
ministry. Now we are unable, with every inducement 
that can be presented, to urge men into it. The 
number is diminishing, and men frequently ask, Is the 
quality improving ? It is said that this deficiency in 
ministers is owing to the fact that we have but few 
revivals now in comparison with former years. But 
why have we so few revivals ? We are under a system 



40 IMMEDIATE RESULTS SOUGHT. 

which was intended to increase the efficiency of the 
ministry. It would seem, then, that while we have 
been laboring to improve the ministry, we have de- 
creased its number, and diminished its power. We are 
obliged to call in the aid of colporteurs to do its work, 
and these are increasing in all denominations. 

This leads me to refer to a peculiarity which has 
until lately distinguished our preachers. They aimed 
at the immediate conversion of men. The Baptists of 
the time of Charles II. were so peculiar in this respect, 
that they considered their practice of sufficient im- 
portance for insertion in their Confession of Faith. 
Thus the London Confession, Article 25, asserts : " The 
preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners is 
absolutely free, no way requiring as absolutely necessary, 
any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the law, 
but only and alone the naked soul, a sinner and 
ungodly, to receive Christ crucified, dead and buried 
and risen again, who is made a Prince and a Saviour 
for such sinners as through the gospel shall be brought 
to believe on him/' — Hansard Knollys Society's Pub- 
lications, page 37, of Baptist Confessions. 

From the manner in which our ministers entered 
upon their work, it is evident that it must have been 
the prominent object of their lives to convert men to 
God. They did not enter the ministry as a learned and 
respectable profession, as a place of literary leisure, as 
an introduction to a professorship, or presidency of a 
College, or to a secretaryship or agency of a Society, 
but because they believed that they were called to the 
work of turning men to God. Nothing but just such a 
conviction would have drawn them aside from their 



EXPERIMENTAL PREACHING. 41 

previous pursuits. Hence they labored directly for this 
object. The great doctrines which they preached were 
the depravity and moral helplessness of man, his just 
condemnation under the holy law of God, the way of 
salvation by repentance and faith on the Lamb of God 
who taketh aw r ay the sins of the world ; and these were 
always followed by earnest entreaties to their hearers to 
flee from the wrath to come. They preached with the 
hope that at every sermon some one would submit him- 
self to Christ ; and unless this result followed their 
labors, they felt that they had labored in vain. They 
had little to do with the " public mind/' " the benefits 
which Christianity confers on our civil institutions/' or 
with any of the common means so frequently resorted 
to to render the gospel of Christ respectable. There 
( were perishing sinners before them. They held in their 
hands the sovereign remedy for the fatal disease which 
was consigning them to destruction. They held up the 
disease and the remedy, and besought men in Christ's 
stead to be reconciled to God. They were generally 
not ashamed. Though held in low esteem by the 
learned and the wealthy, they were wase in turning 
men to righteousness. 

In their preaching to Christians there w r as, I think, 
another peculiarity. They were remarkable for what 
was called experimental preaching. They told much 
of the exercises of the human soul under the influence 
of the truth of the gospel. The feelings of a sinner 
while under the convicting power of the truth ; the va- 
rious subterfuges to which he resorted w T hen aware of 
his danger ; the successive applications of truth by 
which he was driven out of all of them ; the despair of 



42 SUBJECTS OF DISCOURSE. 

the soul when it found itself wholly without a refuge ; 
its final submission to God, and simple reliance on 
Christ ; the joys of the new birth, and the earnestness 
of the soul to introduce others to the happiness which 
it has now for the first time experienced ; the trials of 
the soul when it found itself an object of reproach and 
persecution among those whom it loved best ; the pro- 
cess of sanctification ; the devices of Satan to lead us 
into sin ; the mode in which the attacks of the adver- 
sary may be resisted ; the danger of backsliding, with 
its evidences, and means of recovery from it ; the deal- 
ings of God with the soul in bereavement and disappoint- 
ments ; the hidings of his face in order to confirm and 
strengthen it in holy unwavering trust in Him ; the 
comforts of religion in sickness, poverty, persecution, 
and death ; the nearness of Christ to the soul when all 
earthly aid was withdrawn ; these were some of the 
staple subjects on which our experimental preachers 
loved to expatiate. They were obliged to look into 
their own hearts and the hearts of others for subjects, 
and these were the subjects they found there. They 
looked into the Bible, and there they saw all this in 
abundance. They found a response, when they pre- 
sented these truths, in every devout soul. Christians, 
when face thus answered to face, were drawn very near 
to each other. They conversed on these subjects when- 
ever they met. They even used a term to distinguish 
real Christians from formalists, founded on the con- 
sciousness of these exercises. Thus it was very com- 
mon to hear a devout man designated as an " experi- 
enced person/' or an " experienced Christian/' by way 
of distinction from a mere professor or formalist. The 



RELIGION RENDERED PRACTICAL. 43 

mode in which preaching was designated was derived 
from these ideas. Men did not speak of a sermon as an 
intellectual effort, a splendid performance, a beautifully 
written discourse ; but they said that their souls had 
been fed by it, they had derived food for many days, 
they had treasured up the truth for months, they had 
been delivered from the snare into which they were 
nearly fallen, they were quickened to new Christian 
effort. These remarks show the tendency of the class 
of preachers which seems now to be passing away. 



IX 



EFFECTS OF PREACHING ON EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION ON SAINTS AND 
SINNERS. — DISCRIMINATING PREACHING NECESSARY TO THE SUCCESS OF 
THE GOSPEL. 

It will at once be apparent that peculiar results must 
have followed from preaching of the character to which 
I have alluded in my last number. 

In the first place, religion was brought home in an 
especial manner to the business and bosoms of men. 
The preaching told of the workings of the inner man,, 
and the inner man is always at work. It gave to the 
Christian matter for reflection in the store, the shop, 
the field, and hence kept the subject alive in his 
thoughts. It formed topics of conversation. I remem- 
ber well the meetings of Christians at the house of my 
father, then a Baptist deacon. The conversation was 
almost uniformly on experimental religion. The trials 
and supports, the hopes and the fears of the Christian 



44 SELF-DECEPTION DISCOVEKED. 

soul, were matters of every-day thought, and long even- 
ings were spent in the recital of them. 

Again, preaching of this kind revealed a broad dis- 
tinction between the church of Christ and the world. 
When the exercises of a Christian soul were unfolded, 
and every Christian soul responded to them, an impeni- 
tent man could not conceal from himself the conviction 
that here was something of which he knew nothing, and 
that these disciples of Jesus were living in a world as 
different from his as light is from darkness. His con- 
science was kept alive by the consciousness of this dif- 
ference. He stood before himself as a convicted man, 
and he could not shake off the conviction. There is in 
such cases, also, little need of argument on the evi- 
dences of revelation. The church of Christ, when in 
earnest, has the witness in itself. The worldly man 
sees and feels the present reality of religion, and what 
has a present reality must of course have a foundation. 

This style of preaching had also a great power in 
arousing those who had settled down in a false hope. 
Men may believe every thing after the most orthodox 
creeds, and yet be wholly uninfluenced by the gospel 
of Christ. Their hurt has been healed slightly, and 
while they have the form of godliness, they are aliens 
from the commonwealth of God's spiritual grace. 
When such persons come under preaching which de- 
lineates the workings of piety in the human heart, they 
see that they have never known any thing of this kind 
of religion. They see also that if religion be a Feality, 
it must produce just such fruits — fruits of which they 
are perfectly ignorant. Hence it was very common for 
us to receive into our churches persons who had for 



OF INDISCRIMINATE PREACHING. 45 

many years been professors of religion, but who never 
knew the plague of their own hearts until they heard 
the truth presented in the form that was customary 
among us. 

But it will naturally be said that this sort of preach- 
ing must have been distasteful and almost incompre- 
hensible to men of the world, intelligent and irreligious. 
They would never come to hear sermons on experi- 
mental religion, and earnest calls to repentance. To 
gain these, we must of necessity modify our preaching, 
and deliver discourses in which both church and con- 
gregation will readily sympathize. 

This is frequently said, and it certainly seems very 
reasonable, if we look upon it from the point of view 
which many good men assume. This plan has to a 
considerable extent prevailed in all denominations. 
You hear a sermon from almost any pulpit, and hearken 
to the comments made on it afterward, and you will 
find men who do, and men who do not profess religion, 
criticise it in the very same terms. The language, 
the plan, the delivery, the imagery, are the matters of 
conversation ; the religion of it is equally acceptable to 
both parties. But let us look at this a little. Is not 
religion a serious reality ? Does not the Bible always 
affirm that there is an inconceivable difference between 
the character of him that feareth Grocl, and him that 
feareth him not ; that the desires and affections, the 
hopes and fears, and the principles of action of the one 
are utterly unlike those of the other ? Now let us 
suppose any other assembly to be convened, composed 
of two parties as different from each other as the New 
Testament represents believers and unbelievers to be. 



46 UNFAITHFUL PREACHING. 

Suppose one part of an audience to be men professing 
to be thoroughly instructed in practical chemistry, and 
the rest wholly ignorant of the science. What sort of 
a lecture on chemistry would that be which the ignorant 
understood just as well as the learned, and of which the 
one party was just as well able to determine the merits 
as the other? Common sense would at once decide that 
those men who professed to be learned chemists, really 
knew very little about it ; and that the lecturer, what- 
ever might be his eloquence, was not likely, by his 
labors, to advance the knowledge of his science. Or 
take a still more analogous case. Suppose an audience 
during our revolution to have been composed of thor- 
ough-going royalists and ardent republicans, and that a 
speaker were to address them on the claims of the 
Parliament and the rights of the crown. Were he to 
exhort them in such a manner that both parties liked 
him equally well, and that both sympathized with him 
in all his sentiments, what progress would he ever make 
in bringing back his revolutionary fellow-citizens to 
obedience, and what reward would he expect from the 
master who had sent him ? But an audience is always 
composed of the friends and the enemies of God, of the 
servants of Satan and the servants of Christ. The 
minister is the messenger of God, sent to bring back to 
their allegiance the lost children of men. If he deliver 
his message in such a way that both parties like it 
equally well, and equally sympathize in all his senti- 
ments, he must talk of generalities that mean nothing, 
or the trumpet must give an uncertain sound, so that 
no one will prepare himself for the battle. 

But it will be said, Are we then to drive away all but 



OF MINISTERIAL QUALIFICATIONS. 47 

the children of God ? I reply, 7s there any Holy Ghost ? 
If we preach in such a manner that the disciples of 
Christ are separate from the world, prayerful, humble, 
earnest, self-denying, and laboring for the conversion 
of men, the Spirit of God will be in the midst of them, 
and souls will be converted. The thing will be noised 
abroad. There is never an empty house where the 
Spirit of God is present. You could not keep men 
away from a church where souls were asking what they 
should do to be saved, and where converts were uttering 
the new-born praises of the King of Zion. There are 
certainly these two views to be taken of this subject. 
There are two ways of seeking to fill our houses of wor- 
ship. Which is to be preferred ? "Which looks most 
like fidelity to the Master ? 



X. 

BAPTIST VIETYS OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE MINISTRY. — WE ARE BOUND 

BY THE APOSTOLIC RULE. OUR CIRCUMSTANCES NOT ESSENTIALLY 

DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 

Some of my readers have inquired, What are the 
Baptist principles in respect to qualifications for the 
ministry ? It has been said, and said truly, that I 
have not treated this subject with sufficient distinct- 
ness. This defect I will endeavor to supply. 

The essential principle of Baptist belief is, that in all 
matters relating to religion, we know no authority but 
the Bible. In matters respecting the Christian church, 
we know no authority but the New Testament. We 
renounce the authority of tradition. We eschew all 



48 TRADITION AND CUSTOM RENOUNCED. 

worldly policy, and resist the encroachment of precedents 
which would turn us away from the simplicity of the 
truth as it is in Jesus. Hence it matters not to us how 
many centuries have witnessed the baptism of infants. 
There is no warrant for it in the New Testament, 
and we may not practice it. It matters not to us that 
baptism by immersion is unpopular, and that so public 
and marked a renunciation of the world is distasteful to 
many who would otherwise profess Christ. We cannot 
help it, we must follow in the footsteps of him on whom 
the Spirit of God descended like a dove and lighted 
upon him as he tvent up out of the water. It matters 
not to us that, at an early period in the history of the 
church, various orders were introduced into the ministry, 
from which have arisen popes, cardinals, archbishops, 
bishops, archdeacons, deans, prebendaries, vicars, etc., 
etc. Jesus Christ has said, " It shall not be so with 
you, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are 
brethren/' and, though it may deprive us of the attract- 
iveness which belongs to names, and ranks, and dresses, 
and ceremonials, we feel obliged to follow the Mas- 
ter. 

So it is in respect to the ministry. "We have no 
right to establish any rules regulating the ministry, 
which Christ has not established. No single church, 
nor all the churches combined, have any authority to 
bind what he has loosed, nor to loose what he has bound. 
To his word, then, we must go for our directions on 
this, as on every other similar subject. What then do 
we find in the New Testament to guide us in this 
matter ? 

What can we learn from the example of Christ in the 



CHARACTER OF THE APOSTLES. 49 

selection of the apostles and first preachers of Christi- 
anity ? They were evidently chosen not on account of 
their intellectual endowment, or scientific acquisition, 
but on account of their religious character. There was, 
however, among them considerable intellectual diversity 
and difference of social position. Of the original twelve, 
John w r as probably the most cultivated, and mingled in 
better society than the others. Of the evangelists, Luke 
seems to have enjoyed the best, and Mark the least 
advantages of education. Paul had profited beyond 
many that were his equals in the learning of the schools. 
It would seem, then, that our Lord chose as the first 
preachers of the word, men of all variety of attainment, 
and of very different grades of intellectual culture. 

But we may come nearer to our own circumstances. 
The apostle Paul, after Christian churches were estab- 
lished and pastors were to be ordained, has on two 
occasions specified at considerable length, the qualifica- 
tions of a minister of Jesus Christ. The first of these 
is 1 Tim. hi. 2-7. To save the trouble of reference I will 
transcribe the whole passage : " A bishop then must be 
blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of 
good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach ; not 
given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but 
patient, not a brawler, not covetous ; one that ruleth 
well his own house, having his children in subjection 
with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his 
own house, how shall he take care of the church of 
God ?) not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he 
fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he 
must have a good report of them which are without, 
lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." 

3 



50 QUALIFICATIONS OF A MINISTER. 

So, when Paul directed Titus to ordain elders, he 
gives the same directions almost to a word : "If any 
be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful 
children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop 
must be blameless, as the steward of Grod ; not self- 
willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, 
not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a 
lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding 
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he ! 
may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to 
convince the gainsayers." Titus, i. 6-9. 

Such, then, is our constitution. Our laws must con- 
form to it. It would seem from these passages that any 
disciple of Christ, of blameless manners, and pure 
character, meek, forbearing, temperate, sober, just, 
holy, thoroughly attached to the doctrines of the gospel, 
having a natural gift for teaching, and having had some 
experience in the Christian life — not a novice — has the 
qualifications for the ministry which the New Testament 
requires. These are found to be precisely the qualifica- 
tions demanded in the missionary field, and the men 
who possess them are the men found to be preeminently 
useful. 

But it will be said, of course, that our circumstances 
at the present day are very different from those at the 
time of the apostles. This is more easily said than 
proved. The whole w r orld of heathenism was then 
arrayed against the church of Christ. Never was the 
cultivation of the intellect and the taste carried to 
higher perfection. The poets and orators, the historians, 
sculptors, and architects of this heathen world, are, to 
the present, clay, our acknowledged masters. The church 



Christ's authority binding. 51 

of Christ was sent forth to subdue this cultivated and 
intellectual world, and the masses associated with it. 
And what was the class of men of whom this church 
and its leaders were composed ? They were stigmatized 
as unlearned and ignorant. The intellectual difference 
between them and the men whom they were called to 
meet/ was as great in the times of the apostles as it 
has ever been since. Yet Grod chose the weak things of 
the world to confound the mighty. When men of more 
disciplined mind were wanting, they were called by the 
Head of the Church. But even here, the greatest of 
them all declared that he made no use of excellency of 
speech, or of wisdom, in declaring the testimony of 
God ; that he determined to know nothing but Jesus 
Christ and him crucified. There is nothing really in 
the relative condition of the parties, which would ren- 
der a rule inapplicable now, which was applicable then. 

But it will be said, if we act upon this rule we shall 
drive off the learned, and intelligent and wealthy, and 
render ourselves a by-word to the whole community. 
We shall have nothing but ignorant and illiterate men 
to preach the gospel. 

Well, if this is the rule of the Master, we can not 
help it. We know of no lawgiver but Christ, and we 
must obey him at all hazards. If there is any place in 
which he has a right, to supreme authority, it must cer- 
tainly be the church which he has purchased with his 
own blood. 

But I would ask, How does this conclusion follow ? 
Is every discreet, sober, temperate, holy, just man, 
gifted with power to instruct others, and fervently at- 
tached to the doctrines of the gospel, of necessity mean, 



52 GRACE BEFORE GIFTS. 

illiterate, weak, and intellectually contemptible ? Are 
high attainments in piety confined to imbecile intel- 
lects ? Is there not as fair an average of piety among 
the more, as among the less cultivated ? 

Let us meet the question fairly. The apostolic qual- 
ifications for the ministry are confined to the illiterate, 
or they are not. If they are, then it would be safer, 
after all, to adhere to the apostle's rule, for grace is 
before gifts in the view of the Master. But if these 
qualifications are equally distributed through every 
range of culture, by adhering to the rule we shall have 
a large variety of gifts adapted to every situation, and 
after all, have such men as every Christian must say are 
best suited to the work of saving souls. Our rule 
would then seem to be, to require, in all cases, the 
apostolic qualifications, and consider every man a suit- 
able candidate for the ministry who possesses them, 
whatever may be his attainments or position in society. 
If he be apt to teach, he will be neither an imbecile 
nor a pedant. 



XI. 

it is possible to believe our principles and act at variance 
with them. — change in thirty-five years. — the reason of the 
saviour's rule. 

In my last number I endeavored to show what the 
New Testament requires in a candidate for the gospel 
ministry. It is obvious that these requirements relate 
exclusively to moral character, with one single excep- 
tion, an aptitude to teach. No specific amount of 



THEORY VERSUS PRACTICE. 53 

learning is demanded. Aptness to teach is generally a 
natural endowment, which learning can not confer. 
Were it otherwise we should not see so many educated 
ministers who have evidently mistaken their profession, 
and who would be more useful in some other field. 

Now, if such be the rule of the Master, by what 
authority do we alter, amend, or abolish it ? Is Jesus 
Christ King in Zion ? Is he still the head of the 
church ? Or shall we leave him, to follow the example 
of other denominations, or a worldly public opinion in 
our own denomination ? Or shall we say that these 
directions were good enough for the times of the apos- 
tles, but that we have now outgrown them ? By the 
very same argument we may establish the authority of 
infant baptism, baptism by sprinkling, or any other 
practice which man has introduced into the church of 
Christ. 

But it will be said, We all believe these doctrines. 
Where are they ever disputed ? What is the use, then, 
of argument, when there is no difference ? 

I well know that we all yield to them a theoretical 
assent ; but this may easily be done wiien there exists 
great practical divergency. In many parts of our coun- 
try, in a meeting called to consider the wants of the 
ministry, could a man utter precisely these sentiments 
without giving grave offense, nay, where he would not 
be stigmatized as an enemy to ministerial education ? 
In meetings of this kind are not ministers who have not 
received what is called " a thorough training/' treated, 
in fact, almost as " outsiders," as men who, to be sure, 
are in the ministry, but have a very questionable right 
to be there ? I do not believe that this is intended 



54 CHANGE OF VIEWS. 

unkindly, or probably intended at all, but the fact is, 
we have been so much in the habit of hearing other 
denominations talk in this way, that we have fallen into 
it without being aware of its bearing. When any 
question comes up respecting the supply of ministers 
for our Home or Foreign Missions, wc are presented 
with an array of statistics from our Colleges and Theo- 
logical Seminaries, in order to estimate the number that 
may be relied on. It is manifestly taken for granted, 
that from these sources alone our wants are to be 
supplied. We are urged to endow institutions of learn- 
ing as the means, if not the only means, by which our 
ministerial ranks may be filled. It is exceedingly pain- 
ful to observe how, on occasions such as I ha,ve alluded 
to, the feelings of the large number of our most pious, 
useful, and faithful ministers must be wounded by the 
remarks of a small number of those who have enjoyed 
the advantages of a collegiate or theological diploma, or 
who have taken this subject under their immediate 
supervision. 

It is surprising to remark how greatly we have 
changed in this respect within thirty or thirty-five 
years. About thirty-five years since, a distinguished 
minister of the Congregational church, in order to show 
the need of Education Societies, published a report, in 
which he set forth the destitution of the means of grace 
in the various States of the Union. In States swarm- 
ing with Baptists he enumerated but a handful of 
ministers. When an explanation was requested, it was 
stated that he only counted educated ministers, and 
that, of course, he left the Baptists not educated out of 
his estimate. There arose throughout the denomina- 






design of Christ's rule. 55 



tion a storm of indignation, and the case was ably 
argued in an elaborate review of the report. I have, 
however, lived to see ground tacitly taken, in many of 
our educational meetings, which would have fully justi- 
fied the most offensive features of this very report. 
Yet this has not been done from unkindness, or arro- 
gance, or intentional swerving from principle, but from 
an unfortunate disposition which we too often exhibit, 
to follow the example of other denominations, instead 
of holding fearlessly to the rule of the Master. 

The reason why the Saviour adopted this rule is, I 

i think, obvious. He meant to make it evident that his 
church stood, not in the wisdom of men, but in the 
power of God ; that the conversion of men was the work 

j of the Spirit, and that nothing which man could add to 
the simple manifestation of the truth, was essential to 
its divine efficiency. Hence, he chose the things which 
men called weak, to confound the things which men 
called mighty. Hence, also, the apostle Paul, though 
a well educated man, preaching in the midst of a most 
refined and cultivated society, laid aside the " wisdom 
of words/' and preached Christ crucified, though it was 
"to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks 
foolishness, but unto them that were called, both Jews 
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom 
of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than 
men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 
That no flesh should glory in his presence/' 

But it will be asked, May not learned and "thor- 
oughly trained'' men be holy, humble, meek, self-deny- 
ing, and apt to teach ? Undoubtedly. They are, by 
reason of their peculiar advantages, under greater obli- 



56 FRUITS OF THE ADOPTION 

gations to be such. They may be able to do some part 
of the work better than others. But I ask, also, may 
not men, not thoroughly trained, be holy, humble, meek, 
self-denying, and apt to teach also ? Are they not, 
then, as highly esteemed by the Master as their breth- 
ren, and should they not be as highly esteemed by us ? 
And is there not work in the vineyard to be done, which 
they can do better than the others ? Has not the 
greater part of the work of building up and extending 
the church of Christ been done by men of whose learn- 
ing the world at least has never heard ? 

And besides. Where the New Testament plan has 
been adopted, it has been always attended with wonder- 
ful success. It was so in our own denomination in 
former times. When every church had its licentiates 
in large numbers, when every man who possessed the 
qualifications demanded by the New Testament was 
called to the exercise of his gifts, when religious meet- 
ings took the place of the amusements which now draw 
away so many of the unwary, we multiplied beyond all 
example. So it is now in Germany. The little church 
of seven members, organized and carried on upon these 
principles, has spread from Hamburg to the borders of 
Eussia, and now numbers its churches and stations by 
hundreds, and their converts by thousands ; and this 
work has been accomplished by the use of such gifts 
and graces as God gave them, improved as they were 
able to improve them. The Karen and Burman mis- 
sions furnish a similar example. For a series of years 
these missions seemed almost stationary. As soon as we 
began to call to the ministry and ordain all those who 
seemed endowed with suitable gifts and Christian graces, 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PLAN. 57 

the missions arose and burst forth as though revived from 
the dead, and are at the present moment, so far as I 
know, the most flourishing of all the missions to the 
heathen. Brethren, are not these things deserving of 
serious reflection ? May not notions have crept in 
among us, which require to be examined with Christian 
independence and deliberate caution ? 



XII. 

BY CARRYING- OUT THESE VIEWS WE SHOULD HAVE SUCH A MINISTRY 
AS CHRIST HAS APPOINTED, A MORE NUMEROUS MINISTRY, A MINISTRY 
ADAPTED TO THE VARIOUS WANTS OF MEN. — CONSEQUENCES OF THE 
OPPOSITE VIEW. 

But it will be asked, If we adopt these sentiments, 
what sort of a ministry shall we have ? 
I answer, 

1. We shall, in my opinion, have such a ministry as 
Christ has appointed. Could we have a better ? If 
he has established the qualifications which he requires 
in a minister of the gospel, can we improve upon them? 
Have we a right to modify them, or in any respect to 
alter them ? Who will dare to change the constitution 
which Christ has given to his church ? If we may do 
it in this case, we may do it in all cases, and we assume 
the very worst badge of the Papacy. 

2. I answer, secondly, we shall have a ministry ten 
times as numerous as we have at present. The minis- 
terial gifts which Christ has bestowed upon the church 
are now almost hidden. By imposing restrictions such 
as Christ has not imposed, we are reducing our minis- 

3* 



58 ADVANTAGE OF ADOPTING 

try to the absolute minimum. In large and intelligent 
churches, embracing men in every department of life, 
men capable of addressing their fellow-citizens on al- 
most any other topic of interest, we can scarcely find 
one who will dare to speak publicly on the subject of 
man's salvation. They universally excuse themselves 
because they have not had a theological education, and 
no one opens his mouth for God but the pastor of the 
church. We can find few only who are willing even to 
speak in a conference meeting. Were we to propose 
that they should go into a destitute neighborhood and 
conduct a religious meeting, they would probably, with 
great self-complacency, tell us that they never inter- 
fered with the duties of the minister. We frequently 
hear this very notion indirectly encouraged by ministers 
themselves. We hear preachers tell men of the awful 
guilt of continuing in their sins, when they have been 
warned by a commissioned ambassador of the Most 
High ; as though every man who knew the grace of 
God was not under obligation to call every sinner whom 
he met to repentance. 

Now by adopting the apostolic rule, all this would 
be changed. Every man who had any gifts for the work 
of speaking to men on the subject of salvation, would be 
called upon to exercise them. We should have men in 
all the departments of life ready to speak in public for 
God. Every church, as in Germany, would have its 
out-stations, where, in school-houses, and halls, and in 
private houses the destitute would be called together to 
hear the word of salvation. These stations would, by 
the blessing of God, soon grow into churches, and these 
churches, imbued with the same spirit, would be them- 



THE APOSTOLIC RULE. 59 

selves centers from which a similar influence would go 
forth to Christianize the region around them. Is not 
this the true conception of a church of Christ ? 

3. We should have a ministry adapted to the diver- 
sified conditions of men. A congregation composed of 
scholars would, other things being equal, be more 
profited by the ministrations of a scholar. But how 
many in a hundred of our congregations are composed 
of scholars ? Our people are generally composed of 
substantial men, of considerable variety of culture, but 
not generally highly educated. And again, we are not 
placed here merely to hear the gospel and profit by it 
ourselves, but to labor for those who are wandering far 
from God, and belong to no congregation whatever. 
We need men, therefore, of every variety of cultivation, 
men of good sense, fervent piety, apt to teach, to go 
abroad everywhere and each one gather in his appro- 
priate portion of the whitening harvest. 

But some men will ask us whether we are in favor of 
intrusting the great truths of religion to illiterate men. 
Will not such doctrines be degraded by coming from 
such lips ? and will not men be deluded and destroyed 
by reason of the ignorance of the teacher ? I answer, 
first, the great truths of the gospel were first of all com- 
mitted to just such men. The priests perceived of 
Peter and John " that they were unlearned and igno- 
rant men, and they marveled ; and they took knowl- 
edge of them that they had been with Jesus/' Such 
men did good service then, when " they had been with 
Jesus ;" might they not be useful again ? We should, 
however, remember that we live in an age of universal 
education. Men, not of classical culture, are very far 



60 CAPACITY FOE TEACHING. 

from being illiterate ; they are frequently as well in- 
formed and as able to move the minds of other men, as 
many of those who make much larger pretensions. 

But if it be true that no man is capable of explaining 
the gospel to men, and calling them to repentance, un- 
less he be what is called liberally educated, we must 
carry out our doctrine to its results. We must add 
that a man not having enjoyed these advantages, can 
not understand the gospel himself ; for, the precise 
reason why a man can not explain any thing to another 
is, that he himself does not understand it. We then 
come to the conclusion that the Bible is a sealed book 
to the laity, and that we must have a separate order of 
men to unfold its mysteries to us. It is not, then, a 
book given to mem, but only to the priesthood, and we, 
as Bomanists, must receive it as it filters through the 
stupid brains and corrupt hearts of lazy, licentious, and 
bloated ecclesiastics. 

And more yet. This doctrine must shut up almost 
every Sabbath-school and Bible-class in the land. The 
business of every teacher in the Sabbath school is to 
explain the Word of Grod to immortal souls, and urge 
them to repent and believe. These teachers, however, 
are scarcely ever liberally educated persons, but are, 
for the most part, young Christians, generally young 
women, who labor in this manner for the salvation of 
souls. And is it found that they are unable to labor 
successfully for Christ ? On the contrary, so far as I 
know, at present, the Sabbath-school converts far great- 
er numbers than the pulpit. It would seem, then, that 
those who are unqualified to labor for souls convert 
them, and those who are qualified do not convert them. 



DEMAND FOR MINISTERS. 61 

Should we, then, surrender all the labor to the qualified 
class, who would be converted ? We believe, on the 
contrary — and such from time immemorial has been the 
belief of Baptists — that the gospel is a message sent to 
every individual ; that every individual to whom it 
comes can understand it, if he honestly and earnestly 
and prayerfully seeks to understand it, and that what 
he understands himself he is bound to make known to 
his brethren who are ready to perish. 

But to conclude. Our population is increasing with 
a rapidity which it is almost frightful to contemplate. 
The cry comes to us from every denomination for min- 
isters of the gospel. It is said that we ourselves, at 
the present moment, need four thousand ministers to 
supply our vacant churches. We look to our semina- 
ries for aid, and for all this northern and western por- 
tion of the United States, and for foreign missions, to 
say nothing of teachers and officers of colleges, they all 
together present us with twenty-five or thirty ministers 
annually. In the name of common sense, " What are 
these among so many ?" Things going on thus, we 
must soon come to an absolute standstill. We must 
call upon the Lord of the harvest to send forth 
laborers into the harvest, and we must employ every 
laborer whom he has designated, or we must give up 
the effort to evangelize the world. The whole mass of 
our people must become instinct with life. Every one 
must find out, or his brethren must find out for him, 
what the Master would have him to do, and he must do 
it, not conferring with flesh and blood. Zion would 
then arise and shake herself from the dust, and put on 
her beautiful garments ; her walls would be salvation, 
and her gates praise. 



62 FREQUENT REMOVALS. 



XIII. 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. — FREQUENT CHANOES OF MINISTERS. — MINISTE- 
RIAL SUPPORT. — OUR CONDITION DEMANDS A MINISTRY THAT CAN IN 
PART SUPPORT ITSELF. — LABOR WITH THE HANDS DEGRADES NO ONE. 
— DR. ALEXANDER'S FRIEND MR. SHELBURNE. 

Those who have read my last number may possibly 
ask. How can men, such as I have referred to, be sup- 
ported ? They have not the qualifications requisite to 
satisfy the wants of an educated congregation, and they 
can not live by the ministry, except by going from place 
to place, remaining in each church but for a few years. 
"Would this be a useful ministry ? 

To this I answer, 

First, as to removal from place to place, I have not 
observed the difference between these two classes of 
ministers, which is here assumed. Men of all grades 
of acquisition are, at present, remarkably migratory. 
Whether the more or less educated are the more migra- 
tory, it would not be easy to determine. 

Second, the Methodists, from choice, remove their 
ministers every year or two. They have found it no 
obstacle to their unprecedented enlargement. It does 
not then seem that this is, in itself, so great an evil as 
might at first be supposed. But granting that it has 
some disadvantages, it must be admitted that it is a 
powerful aid to the building up of an aggressive denom- 
ination. 

Third, ministers, such as I have designated, would be 
supported better than they are now. In the first place, 
there are many among us, of good gifts, who are able to 



METHOD OF REMUNERATION. 63 

support themselves, who, attending to their secular 
business during the week, would spend their Sabbaths 
most profitably to themselves and others by preaching 
to the destitute. Such a man was the late Ensign 
Lincoln, of the house of Lincoln & Edmonds, of Boston, 
who was the means of thus establishing several of our 
most flourishing churches in that vicinity. 

Fourth, there are others who would be able to sup- 
port themselves only in part. Such men would labor a 
part of the time in their secular calling, and the remain- 
der they would devote to the ministry. For the part 
of their time which they devoted to the ministry they 
must, in all honesty and fairness, be paid. For the 
rest, which was spent for their own benefit, they would 
require no remuneration. Thus the German churches 
frequently send out, to supply stations, men who are 
engaged in secular business. For the time which this 
labor occupies, they pay them the same wages which 
they would earn in their trades. This is just and equal, 
and valuable services are thus secured at a very small cost. 

There are other men who are required by their posi- 
tion to devote their whole time to the work of the min- 
istry. These, on the same principles, should derive 
their whole support from. their ministerial labor. Such 
would undoubtedly be the case in large and long-estab- 
lished churches, just as it is at present. 

Now it is manifest that just such a ministry as this, 
is required in every aggressive denomination. Denom- 
inations that expect to continue in their present state, 
or to grow only by hereditary increase, do not so much 
need it. Yet even these can scarcely exist without it. 
The late Dr. Arnold, of Eugby, most strenuously urged 



64 PARTIAL DEVOTION 

this course on the established Church of England, de- 
claring that unless a class of ministers were introduced 
into the church, who could adapt themselves to the 
wants and habits of thought of the common people, the 
church would lose all its hold upon the mass of the 
population. The Episcopal church in this country has 
taken advantage of this suggestion, and it has com- 
menced admitting to the order of deacons men engaged 
in secular pursuits. A wiser step it certainly could not 
have taken. 

But with us, who know of no semblance of hereditary 
membership, who must be subduing the world to Christ, 
or we become stationary and inevitably decline, such a 
ministry is absolutely essential. Of the four thousand 
churches who need pastors, and the other four thousand 
places where churches should be formed in the villages 
and hamlets of our rapidly extending settlements, how 
many are there who are able to pay for the whole time 
of a minister. How many small churches are there, 
which could not occupy the whole time of a minister 
if they were willing, by great sacrifice, to pay for it. 
Every one must see, at a glance, that the proportion of 
these is very large. These must have a part of a min- 
ister's time, or they can have nothing. Why then 
should we not, by all means, encourage a class of minis- 
ters by which alone our wants can be supplied ? Such 
ministers as these, and a great number of them, are 
absolutely necessary to our progress and success, I had 
almost said to our existence. From the want of them 
in many parts of our country, we are stationary. We 
are making decided progress only where such a ministry 
is cultivated. 



TO MINISTERIAL LABOR. 65 

But it will be said, What are these churches to do 
when they increase and need more cultivated gifts ? I 
answer. If a man possess aptness to teach, he will grow 
with his people, and will keep pace with their increase 
ami improvement. This was the case with this very 
class of ministers in the western part of New York, 
who became our most influential pastors. If, on the 
other hand, a man showed himself incapable of more 
extensive labor, he would have still his secular calling 
to fall back upon, if indeed by the honest exercise of it 
he had not already procured for himself a competence. 
Every church would thus have within itself the means 
of extension, every one would " be a fruit-tree, bearing 
fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself/' by which the 
surrounding waste would be reclaimed from barrenness. 

But it may be said that in thus doing we degrade 
the ministry, by associating its professional functions 
with the labor of men's hands, with mean and servile 
occupations. 

To this we would reply as follows : 

1. Who is it in the first instance, appointed labor as 
the portion of man ? and shall we who profess to be his 
servants, call his appointment degrading, or mean, or 
servile ? Shall a Christian look with disdain upon 
ninety-nine hundredths of his fellow-men, because they 
labor w T ith their hands ? Shall a minister wasting 
away with dyspepsia, the result of physical inertia, de- 
spise his brother, who by obeying the laws of his Maker 
is hale, hearty, cheerful and happy ? Shall a man who 
is living at ease, call that labor degrading by which 
alone the means of his support are provided ? 

2. If this be degrading, then the church of Christ 



66 BENEFIT OF MANUAL LABOR. 

and its ministers were degraded by its Founder himself. 
He chose the apostles, the foundations of his church, 
from the ranks of fishermen, and we see from several 
incidents in the Evangelists, that they labored at their 
sailing after they were set apart to their apostolic office. 
Paul, chosen last of the apostles, supported himself, in 
part, by tent-making. Unless, then, we repudiate the 
whole early example of the apostolic church, we must 
agree that working with a man's hands is no disqualifi- 
cation to a minister of Christ. 

We fear that the partial prevalence of the opinion 
that it is in some sense degrading for a minister of the 
gospel to labor with his hands, is the cause of much of 
the ill health which afflicts the ministry. To preach a 
sermon of half an hour in length two or three times a 
week, should not certainly break down the health of 
any man. The want of physical exercise will, however, 
break down any one. It would be greatly for the ad- 
vantage of the ministry, both intellectually and spirit- 
ually, if we had a greater number of vigorous, healthy 
men, hard-handed, and accustomed to exposure in the 
open air. They would find themselves, in consequence 
of out-door exercise, much better prepared for study, 
able to endure more earnest and protracted labor in the 
ministry, and every power which they possess would be 
worth much more to them and to the church, than it is 
at present. 

I do not know that I can close this paper more appo- 
sitely, than by inserting a passage in the life of the late 
Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, one of the most learned 
and able teachers of theology, and one of the most elo- 
quent preachers, that this country has produced. 



MR. SHELBURNE's NARRATIVE. 67 

" Mr. Yarborough took occasion to inform us that 
there "was a Baptist preacher in his employment as a 
millwright, who would he at the house as soon as his 
work was finished. Accordingly about the dusk of the 
evening, an old man in coarse garb, with leathern apron, 
and laden with tools, entered the house and took his 
seat on the stairs. Neither Mr. Grrigsby nor I had ever 
been acquainted with uneducated preachers, and we 
were struck with astonishment that this carpenter 
should pretend to preach. When we retired, Mr. Shel- 
burne, such was his name, was put into the same room 
witrh us. I felt an avidity to question him respecting 
his call to the ministry, taking it for granted that the 
old man was ignorant. I therefore began by asking him 
what he considered a call to the ministry. Mr. Shel- 
burne perceived the drift of my question, and instead 
of giving a general answer, proceeded to a narrative of 
his own experience, and to state the circumstances 
which led him to suppose that God had called him to be 
a preacher. The substance of his story was as follows : 

" c I was born in one of the lower counties of Virginia, 
and when young was put to learn the carpenter's trade. 
Until I was a man grown and had a family, I never 
heard any preaching but from ministers of the Estab- 
lished Church, and did not even know that there were 
any others. About this time came into the neighbor- 
hood a Presbyterian minister, by the name of Martin, 
whom I went to hear ; and before he was done, I was 
convinced that I was in a lost and undone condition. 
He made no stay, and I heard no more of him. But a 
wound had been left in my conscience which I knew not 
how to get healed, and no one about me could give any 



68 MR. SHELBURNE'S NARRATIVE. 

valuable advice as to a cure. I went from day to day 
under a heavy burden, bewailing my miserable state, 
till at length my distress became so great that I could 
neither eat nor sleep with any peace or comfort. My 
neighbors said I was falling into melancholy or going 
mad, but not one of them had any knowledge, from ex- 
perience, of the nature of my distress. Thus I continued 
mourning over my miserable case for weeks and months. 
I was led, however, to read constantly in the Bible ; 
but this rather increased than lessened my distress ; 
until one Sunday evening I saw, as clearly as I ever saw 
any thing, how I could be saved through the death of 
Christ. I was filled with comfort, and yet sorrow for 
my sins flowed more copiously than ever. I praised 
God aloud, and immediately told my wife that I had 
found salvation ; and when any of my neighbors came 
to see me, I told them of the goodness of God, and what 
he had done for my soul, and how he had pardoned all 
my sins. As I spoke freely of the wonderful change I 
had experienced, it was soon noised abroad, and many 
came to see me, and to hear an account of the matter 
from my own mouth. 

" i On Sabbath evenings my house would be crowded, 
and when I had finished my narrative I was accustomed 
to give them a word of exhortation. And as I could be 
better heard when standing, I stood and addressed my 
neighbors, without any thought of preaching. After 
proceeding for some time in this way, I found that 
several others began to be awakened by what they 
heard from me, and appeared to be brought through 
the new birth much as I had been. This greatly en- 
couraged me to proceed in my work, and God was 



MR. SHELBURNE'S NARRATIVE. 69 

pleased to bless my humble labors to the conversion of 
many. All this time I did no more than relate my 
own experience, and then exhort my neighbors to seek 
unto the Lord for mercy. 

" i Thus was I led on from step to step, until at length 
I actually became a preacher, without intending it. 
Exercised persons would frequently come to me for 
counsel, as I had been the first among them to expe- 
rience the grace of God ; and that I might be able to 
answer their questions I was induced to study the Bible 
continually ; and often wdiile at work particular pass- 
ages would be opened to my mind ; which encouraged 
me to hope that the Lord had called me to instruct 
those that were more ignorant than myself ; and when 
the people would collect at my house, I explained to 
them those passages which had been opened to my mind. 
All this time I had no instruction in spirtual matters 
from any man, except the sermons which I heard from 
Mr. Martin. But after a few years there came a Bap- 
tist preacher into our neighborhood, and I found that 
his doctrine agreed substantially with my experience, 
and with what I had learned out of the Bible. I trav- 
eled about with him, and was encouraged by him to go 
on in the exercise of my gift of public speaking, but was 
told by him that there was one duty which I was re- 
quired to perform, which was that I should be baptized 
according to the command of Christ. And as we rode 
along we came to a certain water, and I said, See, here 
is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized ? Upon 
which we both went down into the water, and he bap- 
tized me by immersion in the name of the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost. From that time I have con- 



70 DR. ALEXANDER'S OPINION 

tinued until this day, testifying to small and great, to 
white and black, repentance toward God and faith in 
our Lord Jesus Christ ; and not without the pleasure 
of seeing many sinners forsaking their sins and turning 
unto God. 

" c Now/ said he, 6 you have heard the reasons which 
induce ine to believe that God has called me to preach 
the gospel to the poor and ignorant. I never consider 
myself qualified to instruct men of education and learn- 
ing. I have always felt badly when such have come to 
hear me. But as for people of my own class, I be- 
lieved that I could teach them many things which they 
needed to know ; and in regard to such as had become 
pious, I was able, by study of the Bible and medita- 
tion, to go before them, so that to them also I could be 
in some measure a guide. I lament my want of learn- 
ing, and am deeply convinced that it is useful to the 
ministry of the gospel ; but it seems to me that there 
are different gifts now as of old, and one man may be 
suited to one part of the Lord's w r ork, and another to 
another part. And I do not know but that poor and 
ignorant people can understand my coarse and familiar 
language better than the discourses of the most learned 
and eloquent men. I know their method of thinking 
and reasoning, and how to make things plain by illus- 
trations and comparisons adapted to their capacities and 
their habits/ 

" When the old millwright had finished his narrative, 
I felt much more inclined to doubt my own call to the 
ministry, than that of James Shelburne. Much of the 
night was spent in this conversation, while my com- 
panion was enjoying his usual repose. We talked freely 



OF MR. SHELBURNE. 71 

about the doctrines of religion, and were mutually grati- 
fied at finding how exactly our views tallied. From 
this night James Shelburne became an object of my 
high regard, and he gave abundant testimony of his 
esteem for me. Whenever I visited that part of the 
country, he was wont to ride many miles to hear me 
preach, and was pleased to declare that he had never 
heard any of the ministers of his own denomination 
with whose opinions he could so fully agree as with 
mine. I had the opportunity of hearing him preach 
several times, and was pleased not only with the sound- 
ness of his doctrine, but the unaffected simplicity of his 
manner. His discourses consisted of a series of judicious 
remarks expressed in the plainest language, and in a 
conversational tone, until he became by degrees warmed 
by his subject, when he fell into a singing tone, but 
nothing like what was common with almost all Baptist 
preachers of the country at that time. As he followed 
his trade from day to day, I once asked him how he 
found time to study his sermons ; to which he replied, 
that he could study better at his work, with his hammer 
in his hand, than if shut up and surrounded with books. 
When he had passed the seventieth year of his age he 
gave up work, and devoted himself entirely to preach- 
ing. Being a man of firm health, he traveled to a con- 
siderable distance and preached nearly every day. On 
one of these tours, after I was settled in Charlotte 
county, I saw him for the last time. The old man ap- 
peared to be full of zeal and love, and brought the 
spirit of the gospel into every family which he visited, 
He was evidently ripening for heaven, and accordingly, 
not long after, he finished his course with joy." 



72 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

XIV. 

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO IMPROVE OUR MINISTRY. — EDUCATION OF OUR 
CHILDREN. — MINISTERS' DUTY IN THIS MATTER. — HIGHER EDUCATION 
FOR THOSE DESIGNED FOR IT. — THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. — THESE 
VIEWS EMINENTLY FAVORABLE TO MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 

It will, however, be said ; Supposing this to be so, we 
have nothing to do for ministerial education, and we 
must leave the ministry in the hands of men who are 
unable to instruct an intelligent audience. "We shall 
have none but ignorant people to hear us, and the cause 
of Christ will sink into contempt. 

To this objection we reply, 

1. It is by no means to be taken for granted that 
God calls by his grace none but ignorant and imbecile 
men. He requires the labor of all, learned and un- 
learned, wise and unwise, and he makes some of all 
ranks the heirs of salvation. If all men of consistent 
piety, who were also apt to teach, felt their obligations 
to labor for Grod in the ministry, the proportion of able 
and educated ministers would be greater than it is at 
present. The ablest and most learned man among us, a 
most devoted pastor, and an author whose writings take 
their place among the noblest productions of consecrated 
genius, whose services have been eagerly sought for by a 
dozen literary and theological institutions, was called to 
the ministry from the bar. One of the most distin- 
guished Judges of one of our southern States is also a 
minister of the gospel, who, when the professional du- 
ties of the week are closed, dispenses on the Sabbath 
the word of eternal life to his perishing fellow-men. 

2. We should pay special attention to the education 



TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 73 

of our children. If we have but little to give them, it 
is vastly better to spend that little in intellectual cul- 
tivation, than to hoard it up, and leave it to them after 
our death. The father of Daniel Webster, though a 
poor man, gave to his son all the advantages of educa- 
tion in his power. The result is known to the world, 
and a century w r ill elapse before it is forgotten. Sup- 
pose he had hoarded up the few hundred dollars which 
this education cost, and left it to him by will, neither the 
father nor son might ever have been heard of beyond a 
limited neighborhood in New Hampshire. We are bound 
to bring up our children for God, and therefore we are 
under obligation to confer upon them every advantage 
which will render them useful in his service. 

We should pray not only for their conversion, but for 
their usefulness in the cause of Christ. It is God who 
confers gifts, and He it is who confers the disposition to 
use those gifts for the benefit of his church. We should 
by precept and example, teach our children the worth- 
lessness of all sublunary honor, of the wealth that 
perishes, and indeed of every thing else but the favor of 
God. Were we to do this, we should find them by mul- 
titudes pressing into the ministry, and willing to sur- 
render the hope of earthly distinction for the blessing 
which God bestows upon those who serve him faithfully 
in the gospel of his Son. 

3. Ministers of the gospel have here a special duty 
to perform. By calling out and cultivating retired and 
diffident talent, they might turn the attention of mul- 
titudes to their duty in this respect. But this is not 
all. Of those who may, in various degrees, be useful in 
ministerial labor, but a few may, perhaps, be found, who 

4 



74 AIDING CANDIDATES 

have the means or opportunity for entering upon a pro- 
tracted course of education. Others with decided talent 
for addressing in en, have no disposition or ability for 
abstract study. They may be driven through it, but 
they derive from it but very small benefit. The gifts 
and callings of Grod are without repentance. When God 
has designed a man for one kind of work, we can not ren- 
der him successful in another by any course of training. 
These plain truths should be always borne in mind, in 
all the efforts we make for the improvement of others. 

But what may a minister do for such persons as he 
finds endowed with means of usefulness, but who are, 
for various reasons, unable to pursue a protracted course 
of study ? He may do for them what will be of ines- 
timable value. He may direct them to the reading of 
the best books. He may spend an hour with them once 
or twice a week, to ascertain their progress, and aid them 
in their difficulties. He may teach them how to study 
the Word of Grod. He may instruct them in the art of 
making a sermon. He may teach them how to make a 
skeleton of a discourse, and criticise their skeletons for 
them. He may send them to proper preaching places, 
and go with them to observe their manner of address. 
He may show them their faults, and teach them the 
manner in which they may be corrected. He may take 
them with him to visit the sick and afflicted, to attend 
funerals, and send them to take the lead in conference 
meetings. And, while doing this, he may give them the 
results of his own experience, and the benefits of his own 
mistakes and failures. 

No one can tell the advantage of such a course as 
this to a young man who has a talent for the ministry, 



FOB THE MINISTRY. 75 

and can avail himself of no other resources. If our 

i ministers had always two or three young men in this 
sort of training, our ministry would be immeasur- 
ably increased in number, and improved in quality. 
Dr. Stillman, Dr. Baldwin, Dr. Staughton, and Dr. 
Chaplin, in this manner were the means, before any 
Institutions were established, of doing immense service 
to the rising ministry. Nor would the advantage be all 
on one side. Much of a minister's duty might profit- 
ably be devolved on such temporary assistants. He 
might fill his whole vicinity with Sabbath-schools, 
Bible-classes, and preaching-places, which would add 
greatly to the power of his church, and bring home 

■ many sons to glory. To assist the studies of others 
would also add greatly to his own stores of knowledge. 
He would be stimulated to study more intently himself, 
and would enrich his own mind fully as much as he 

j would enrich the minds of others. Let our brethren 
who have enjoyed the advantages of higher education, 

I ask themselves whether they have not a duty of this 
nature to discharge to their younger brethren. A 

; general effort of this kind would be of invaluable benefit 

j to our churches. 

Again, there are others whose tastes, abilities, and 

! opportunities, point to the acquisition of more extended 
education. When this is granted in the providence of 
God, a man must have but small knowledge of himself, 
if he does not improve himself to the utmost. We 
have Colleges and Theological Schools in abundance, 
where he may enjoy every advantage for study. These 
seminaries present opportunities for improvement and 
cultivation, of which, if he do not avail himself, he 



76 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 

must have a reason which will justify himself at the bar 
of God. But let him remember that these can not 
make him a minister of Jesus Christ. They confer 
none of the qualifications which Christ has required. 
They are merely accessories which may give increased 
efficiency to the essential qualifications. But if he 
change the accessory into the principal he may be a 
good lecturer, an eloquent orator, or a neat essayist, 
yet he will not be a good minister of Jesus Christ. 

I may, perhaps, be permitted to say a. word respecting 
our Theological Seminaries. They are all fashioned 
after the same model, the Seminary at Andover. This 
is an excellent institution, but it is no heresy to say, 
that it is not probably perfect, or if perfect for Congre- 
gationalists, that it is not of necessity perfect for Bap- 
tists. Our views of the ministry, and the conditions of 
our denomination, are not those of Congregationalists. 
Would it not be w T orth while for some one to take up 
this whole subject and examine it anew, and show what 
is needed in order to render these institutions far more 
effective, by adapting them to our own wants, and our 
own peculiar exigences ? At present, the number of 
young men whom they educate, in comparison with 
our needs, is but a drop in the bucket, while the 
expense to the denomination, of each graduate, is very 
great. Could they not be popularized ? Could they 
not so arrange their instruction as to render it service- 
able to men of different degrees of preparation ? In- 
stead of educating eight, ten, or twelve, annually, could 
they not educate fifty or a hundred ? With due at- 
tention to learning, could, they not also labor to make 
preachers — men of popular address, capable of " think- 



NEED OF INCREASED EFFICIENCY. 77 

ing on their legs" and able to move an audience by 
solemn, earnest, stirring, and persuasive address ? Our 
present means for educating ministers are certainly not 
so successful as to preclude the inquiry, whether they 
might not be rendered, with the same expense, vastly 
more efficient. Is it not worth while to ask two very 
simple questions, first, What do we, the Baptists of the 
United States, really need ? and secondly, By what 
means may our needs be best supplied ? I shall not 
pretend to answer these questions, but I say that he 
who will answer them successfully, will do a great serv- 
ice to the denomination. 

If, then, it be said, that these views are opposed to 
an educated ministry, we reply : 

1. Is it opposition to an educated ministry, to affirm 
that every man whom God calls to the ministry should 
cultivate himself, just so far as God has given him the 
opportunity ? Is it opposition to an educated ministry 
to urge every minister to labor to improve to the utmost 
his younger brethren, in whom he perceives gifts for 
usefulness ? Is it opposition to an educated ministry 
to labor to improve the hundred instead of only the 
ten ? All that we propose is this, that every one be 
encouraged to enter upon this work who possesses the 
qualifications which the New Testament has established, 
and that every one who enters upon this work be urged 
and aided to give himself all the means of improvement 
which the providence of God places in his power. 

2. If it be said that the apostle Paul urges Timothy 
and Titus to give attention to doctrine, or learning, or 
study, we answer, very good, we do the same. He 
advises those who have devoted themselves to the min- 



78 EDUCATION OF THE MANY. 

istry to improve therm selves to the utmost. We urge 
this as strongly as he has done it. A man would never 
he apt to teach who did otherwise. This is, however, a 
very different thing from prescribing any amount of 
classical learning as a necessary qualification in a can- 
didate for the ministry. Horace, Virgil, Homer, iEschy- 
lus, and Euclid, were as well known to the apostle as 
to us. But does he make the study of these authors a 
prerequisite to admission to the work of preaching the 
gospel of regeneration ? "We say, let every one im- 
prove himself as far as God gives the opportunity, but 
we dare not prescribe any qualification for the ministry 
which inspiration has not prescribed. 

3. Which has the appearance of opposition to an 
educated ministry, an effort to educate the whole min- 
istry, so far as it is practicable, or an effort to educate 
some twenty or thirty a year, and leave the thousand 
unprovided with any means of cultivation ? Do not 
the multitude, whose advantages have been small, need 
our aid in this respect more than those who have 
already received the advantages of a liberal education ? 
While we provide for the one class, shall the larger 
class be wholly neglected ? If education is good for a 
part, is it not good for the whole ministry ? 

4. But in this respect, there need be no controversy 
or unkindness. If some consider it their duty to labor 
for the good of the few, they surely can not be grieved 
with us, if we desire to labor for the many. If some 
men labor for colleges, they surely would not disparage 
the motives of those who labor for common schools and 
academies, without which colleges themselves could not 
exist. So while some are laboring for seminaries, as it 



DUTY OF PERSONAL EFFORT. 79 

is said, u of a high, order/' they will, of course, look 
kindly on those who desire to introduce to the ministry 
every one whom God has called, and to give to every 
one all the advantages which God has placed in our 
power. 



xv. 

UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION RESTING ON ALL THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST TO 
LABOR PERSONALLY FOR HIM. — SUNDAY SCHOOLS. — COLPORTEURS. — 
GENERAL INEFFICIENCY OF PROFESSORS OF RELIGION. 

I have already extended these notes on the subject 
of the ministry very far beyond my intention. It is 
time to bring them to a close. 

To sum up what we have said, in a few words. We 
believe that every individual w^hom God has called by 
his grace is under the most solemn and imperative obli- 
gations to labor not only indirectly but directly, for the 
extension of the cause of Christ. No man can be 
religious, unless he be a religionist. To this work he 
must consecrate his whole being, and this work he can 
not delegate to another. 

In this work there are various departments of service, 
each one having his own gift, one after this manner, 
and another after that. To suppose Christ to call a 
man to be his servant, and have nothing for him to do, 
is absurd. Among these gifts is aptness to teach, or a 
power bestowed, in different degrees, to address men on 
the subject of their souls' salvation. On some men this 
gift is bestowed so largely that they are called to devote 
their whole time to this service. On others it is less 
largely bestowed, and these may very properly combine 



80 CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE DECLINING. 

labor in the ministry with some secular pursuit. It is 
surely sufficiently common for a man to begin with the 
ministry and end by uniting it with a secular calling ; 
why may not a man, with equal propriety, commence 
with a secular calling, and end by combining with it 
the work of the ministry ? 

That this is the apostolic plan, is, I think, evident to 
any one who will candidly read the New Testament. 
That this view of the ministry is according to the mind 
of the Spirit, is, I think, evident from the success that 
has attended it wherever it has been adopted, whether 
in heathen or in Christian lands. It is in vain to say 
that to adopt these views is to place ourselves in oppo- 
sition to the public opinion of the world, and of the 
various denominations of Protestant Christianity. The 
opinions and practice of Protestant Christianity are by 
no means as sure a guide as the precepts and examples 
of the New Testament. It can scarcely be denied that, 
at the present moment, Christianity is everywhere los- 
ing its hold upon the masses of the population, Our 
ministry and our houses of worship are becoming the 
ministry and the houses of worship of the rich and the 
educated, while the whole body of the people is uncared 
for and forgotten. Jesus Christ taught us that one of 
the evidences of his divine mission was, that to the poor 
the gospel was preached. If we do not preach to the 
poor as well as to the rich, we lose this badge of disci- 
pleship. Shall we then follow the example of a declin- 
ing Christianity, or shall we tread in the footsteps of the 
Master ? 

The fact is, if we must speak the truth, almost all 
our denominations are sinking down into the belief that 



UNCOMMISSIONED MESSENGERS. 81 

all the direct work for the conversion of the world is to 
be done by the ministry ; thus making a broad distinc- 
tion between the clergy and the laity (I rise these 
terms, not because I approve of them, but because they 
are so much in vogue). We are coming to think the 
minister is to do the work of the Lord, and the business 
of the private brother is simply to pay him for it. I say 
we are coming to this belief, ice have not yet exactly 
arrived at it. Our Sabbath-schools form an exception. 
It is still held that the uncommissioned messengers of 
Christ may, and ought to labor here. But these are 
conducted mainly by the young, especially, as I have 
before remarked, by young women. Had it not been 
for Bichard Eaikes, I do not see what employment 
could have been found for our young disciples. But, as 
it is, as a Christian advances in age he gradually leaves 
even this service, and thus this work really finds employ- 
ment for but a small portion of the Lord's host. 

Another exception is in the case of colportage. It is 
strange that we are governed so much by names. The 
introduction of a French word has here wrought almost 
a miracle. A colporteur is generally a man, as our 
Episcopalian brethren would say, not in holy orders, 
who travels from town to town, and goes from house to 
house to distribute tracts, converse with families, hold 
religious meetings, and by every means but formally 
taking a text and pronouncing the benediction, does 
precisely the work of a minister. He is to all intents 
and purposes a lay preacher. Yet, call him a lay 
preacher, and thousands would tremble for the respect- 
ability of the ministry. Call him a colporteur, and 
every one subscribes to sustain him, and all acknowl- 

4* 



82 CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL DECAY. 

edge that his agency is of vital importance to the church 
of Christ. 

Yet this work is confined to young men, frequently 
to illiterate men, to foreigners, and in general to those 
whose time can be purchased at the cheapest rate. 
What would our merchants and lawyers and men of 
property and worldly standing think if we should urge 
them to undertake this same labor ? What would 
they say if we should ask them to spend their vacations 
and intervals of leisure in the summer months in doing 
substantially the labor of a colporteur, or to use the 
offensive term, of a lay preacher ? They would tell us 
they will give their money. Yes, but G-od requires not 
your money but yourselves. And how much of your 
money do you give ? Why, two or three men worth 
some hundreds of thousands apiece, will unite in sup- 
porting one such laborer, when they might each one 
support ten or twenty, by denying themselves of some 
expenditure for useless and soul-destroying luxury. 

The fact is that our most intelligent, able, middle- 
aged, private brethren have little to do, and they do 
little. This broad distinction which has grown up 
between them and the ministry, has reduced their effort 
for the cause of Christ to its minimum. Our lawyers, 
merchants, men of business in the several departments 
of active life, our teachers and professors have no spirit- 
ual work before them beyond caring for their own souls. 
Hence their piety languishes, they become entangled in 
the world, they follow its customs, they adopt its max- 
ims, they share in its amusements, simply because they 
have no spiritual work to do by which their religious 
principles may be invigorated. Let any one look over 



RIGHTS AND DUTIES. 83 

one of our churches at a communion season, especially 
over an old and wealthy, and, as it is called, a most re- 
spectable church, and say whether in what I have said 
I have overstated the facts. Monopoly is a curse, either 
in state or church. This growing monopoly must be 
broken up, or the whole church will sink into fatal 
worldliness. 

The private brethren of the church have rights. 
Jesus Christ has called them to be his servants, and he 
has conferred on every one the privilege of working in 
his vineyard, and has promised to each laborer a rich 
reward. He has given to each servant some particular 
gift, and permitted him to use that gift for him. Of 
this right no man, or body of men, or ecclesiastical au- 
thority may deprive him. Every Christian is Christ's 
freeman, and he has a right to labor for Christ in any 
place where his Master opens a door, and he is to seek 
diligently to ascertain where the door is opened for 
him. 

If the private brethren of our churches have rights, 
then it follows that they have also duties. If Christ 
has given them the right to labor for him, then he has 
imposed upon them the corresponding duty. It is the 
imperative duty of every brother who has any power of 
public address to use it for Christ. You say that you 
have not this gift. Did you ever try ? When you 
was first converted you had it, and was willing at all 
times to tell men of the excellency of Christ. Had you 
continued to do so, like James Shelburne, you would 
now have become a Christian of a very different charac- 
ter from what we now behold. You have so long 
buried your talent in the $a~th that you do not know 



84 PREVALENCE OF UNGODLINESS. 

where to find it, and your whole spiritual nature is suf- 
fering on account of it. Let me ask you a plain ques- 
tion. Do you believe that Christ called you that you 
might go forth and bear fruit, or that you might be 
a branch that beareth no fruit, whose end is to be 
burned ? Do you believe that Christ called you by his 
grace, that you might be a very respectable, influential 
citizen, a kind and worthy neighbor, willing to attend 
church twice on Sunday, pay your pew tax, and sub- 
scribe to beautify your house of worship, and give per- 
haps the interest of your income to advance his cause, 
and has nothing more for you to do ? And are you to 
excuse yourself for your disobedience to Christ, by 
pleading that you pay your minister for laboring for 
souls, and that you are not in " holy orders V 

Brethren, beloved in the Lord, excuse my plainness 
in this matter. I write not to please you, but to do 
you good. I humbly hope that u the love of Christ 
constraineth me." Look abroad upon Zion ; consider 
her desolations. Iniquity abounds. The love of many 
waxes cold. Our youth are growing up without any 
regard for religion, and are yielding themselves up to 
all the allurements of a soul-destroying world. The 
masses of our people are not under the influence of the 
institutions of religion. Multitudes among us, even at 
our own doors, are pressing on to the judgment day, as 
ignorant of the way of salvation as the heathen in India 
or in Africa. Foreigners by hundreds of thousands are 
landing upon our shores, the decided and avowed ene- 
mies of the cross of Christ. The governments of the 
world acknowledging thQ name are enemies to the 
power of the religion of Jesus, And at such a time as 



NEED OF A REVIVAL. 85 

this, are we all to sit down quietly and satisfy ourselves 
with doing nothing for Christ, because we pay the min- 
ister's salary that he may do it for us ? No ! the cause, 
at this emergency, requires the most active employ- 
ment of every talent of every true disciple. The masses 
of the church must be aroused, or the enemy will come 
in like a flood, and there will be neither faith nor power 
to raise up a standard against him. 

But, while we do this, we must rely on something in- 
finitely better than an arm of flesh. Let us meditate 
over these things, and ask the Master to show us our 
duty. Let us with one heart pray for a universal de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit upon all his churches. Should 
the dayspring from on high visit us once more, we could 
not remain in our present condition. We should be 
constrained to arise and make sacrifices for God. Then 
the feeblest among us would be as the house of David, 
and the house of David as the angel of the Lord. 



XVI. 

BAPTISTS ACKNOWLEDGE THE SOLE AUTHORITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
IN OPPOSITION TO TRADITION AND DECREES OF COUNCILS. — BAPTISM: 
THE MODE OF ADMINISTERING THIS ORDINANCE WHICH WE CONSIDER, 
OBLIGATORY. 

I have, for the present at least, concluded my re- 
marks on the subject of the Baptist ministry. I pro- 
ceed to some other of our distinguishing tenets. 

The fundamental principle on which our difference 
from other evangelical denominations depends, is this : 
we profess to take for our guide, in all matters of 



86 AUTHORITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

religious belief and practice, the New Testament, the 
whole New Testament, and nothing but the New Testa- 
ment. Whatever we find there we esteem binding upon 
the conscience. "What is not there commanded, is not 
binding. No matter by what reverence for antiquity, 
by what tradition, by what councils, by what consent 
of any branches of the church, or of the whole church, 
at any particular period, an opinion or practice may be 
sustained, if it be not sustained by the command or the 
example of Christ, or of his apostles, we value it only 
as an opinion or a precept of man, and we treat it 
accordingly. We disavow the authority of man to add 
to, or take from the teachings of inspiration as they are 
found in the New Testament. Hence, to a Baptist, all 
appeals to the Fathers, or to antiquity, or general 
practice in the early centuries, or in later times, are 
irrelevant and frivolous. He asks for divine authority 
as his guide in all matters of religion, and if this be not 
produced, his answer is, "in vain do ye worship me, 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." 

It is from adherence to this principle that our diver- 
gency from other denominations of Christians originates. 
We do not make this assertion in any invidious sense. 
Other Christians may believe as firmly as we, that they 
also adhere to this principle ; and, in fact, did they not 
claim such to be their belief, they would cease to be 
Protestants. We fully concede these to be their senti- 
ments, and therefore we love and honor them. We 
can not, however, divest ourselves of the opinion, that 
we have escaped some of the errors which crept into the 
church at the time of the Keformation, and in this 
respect, how much soever we may fail in other respects. 



MODE OF BAPTISM. 87 

that we are nearer to the New Testament than many 
of our Christian brethren, whom we love as heirs with 
us of the glory which shall be revealed. 

As I have before remarked, we agree in holding the 
general doctrines of the plan of salvation with the other 
evangelical denominations in this country, and through- 
out the world. The Westminster Confession of Faith 
probably expresses our sentiments on these subjects as 
nearly as almost any other document. With the thirty- 
nine Articles of the Episcopal church, we should find 
but little at which we could take exception. With the 
Orthodox Friends we are, on most points, closely in 
harmony. From the Methodists we differ principally 
in our views of the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine 
of election. The Consregationalists of the North, in 
their general teachings, express our sentiments in all 
important particulars. With all these Christian breth- 
ren we delight to take sweet counsel, and walk to the 
house of God in company. We rejoice in their success. 
We grieve in their affliction, and we gladly cooperate 
with them in every good work, just so far as we can do 
it without compromising our fidelity to conscience. 

The difference which separates us from other de- 
nominations of Christians arises, mainly, from our views 
of the ordinance of baptism ; and from the results 
which naturally flow from that difference. What our 
views are on this subject, it will be proper for me here 
briefly to explain. 

First, then, as to the mode of baptism. 

We believe that the ordinance of baptism is to be 
administered by the immersion of the body in water ; 
baptizing the candidate "into the name of the Father, 



88 IMPORT OF BAPTISM. 

the Son, and the Holy Ghost." We much prefer the 
simple formula as given in the Evangelists, though of 
late ; some of our ministers have here and there added a 
phrase or two to it, after the example of other denomi- 
nations, or in explanation of their own views of the 
subject. 

We prefer the preposition into to in, in the apostolic 
formula. Into is the proper translation of the original 
word. This is a sufficient reason for our preference. 
Nor is this all. It expresses, as we believe, the mean- 
ing of the ordinance, which the other word does not. 
In the name of any one means merely by the authority 
of, and nothing more. The word name here, however, 
has a totally different signification. The name u of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" is only the Hebrew mode 
of signifying "the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 
Thus, "we will trust in the name of the Lord our 
God/' " Hallowed be thy name;" that is, we will trust 
in the Lord our God. Hallowed be our Father in 
heaven, etc. The idea of the formula of baptism is, 
then, baptizing into the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost. Thus, says Robinson, "to baptize, or to be 
baptized into any one is, into a profession of faith of 
any one, and sincere obedience to him." (See Eobinson 
on this word.) So the children of Israel were " bap- 
tized into Moses," that is, into discipleship to him. 
They thus took him for their leader and lawgiver, 
promising to obey and follow him. Precisely thus do 
we understand the formula of baptism. The person 
baptized abjures the world, and enters into covenant 
with God. He was an enemy to God by wicked works, 
he is now a child of God through faith in his Son ; he 



AUTHORITY FOR IMMERSION. 89 

was dead in sin, he is now alive to God ; the Spirit of 
God dwells in his heart, and to that Spirit he professes 
to subject every thought and purpose, every motive and 
action. This is what we suppose is meant to be sym- 
bolized in the ordinance of baptism, and hence the 
meaning of the expression, baptized into the name of, or 
into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The 
difference between the two expressions is thus clearly 
manifest. We could baptize any thing in the name of 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Episcopalian 
service uses this expression (we think very improperly) 
in the ceremony of marriage. The Eomanists baptize 
bells, standards, or any thing whatever in the name of, 
etc. We can not, however, baptize into the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, any thing but a rational being, a 
sinner repenting of his sins, and now entering into 
covenant with the Father of his spirit. 

In the administration of this ordinance we immerse 
the whole body in water, instead of merely sprinkling 
water upon the face. The reason for this is briefly 
stated. We believe this to be the meaning of our 
Saviour's command, when he directs us to go forth to 
baptize the nations. In this belief we are confirmed by 
the testimony of all antiquity, by the practice of the 
Greek church, by all the indirect allusions to the 
ordinance of baptism in the New Testament, and by 
the almost universal consent of scholars, from the re- 
vival of letters in Europe to Conybeare and Howson of 
the present day. 

We know it is said, Suppose this be so, yet any pre- 
cept of this kind is to be modified according to the 
customs of the age and country in which we live. To 



90 OBJECTIONS OF P E D B A P T I S T S. 

this we reply, that we do not feel at liberty to institute 
such changes, in a matter which Christ has commanded. 
Besides, were this so, our brethren who differ from us 
should abide by their principle. Among Greeks, among 
Orientals, and Mohammedans, where bathing the whole 
body is a matter of daily practice, they should certainly 
follow the apostolic example. The manner of obedience 
to the command of Christ, would thus become a matter 
of climate and of public opinion. We do not feel at 
liberty to adopt such principles of interpretation. 

But it is said again, The manner is of no consequence, 
every thing depends upon the spiritual act, the state of 
mind of the candidate. If he renounces sin, and sub- 
mits himself to God, this is the essence of the act, and 
all else is " mint, anise and cummin/' Here, however, 
it seems to us that our brethren who differ from us 
relieve themselves of one difficulty by plunging into a 
greater. If the manner be nothing, and the state of 
mind every thing ; if baptism be essentially the profes- 
sion of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, how can that be 
baptism which is administered to unconscious infants, 
who are absolutely incapable of these spiritual exercises. 
We well remember to have seen the father of exeget- 
ical study in this country sorely embarrassed in the 
lecture-room by a question of* this kind. Nor have we 
ever been able to perceive how these two views can pos- 
sibly exist together. 

It may, however, be said, that a public profession by 
an act in itself so noticeable, is a severe trial to persons 
of delicacy and refinement. It is a cross which they 
will not take up, and if we adhere to what is here sup- 
posed to be a command of Christ, we shall keep many 



BAPTISM A CROSS. 91 

of the most intelligent and influential persons out of 
the church of Christ. -^ 

Of all this we are perfectly aware, and yet it does not 
move us. Men and women living in sin, are perfectly 
willing in the most open and noticeable way to profess 
their allegiance to the enemy of souls. They do not go 
to theaters or operas by stealth, but glory in the service 
which they have chosen. They do not shrink from per- 
forming dances, at which modesty must blush, in the 
presence of a whole assembly. And when they put off 
all these things, renounce the service of Satan, and 
assume the livery of Christ, is it not proper that this 
should be done by the performance of a public and no- 
ticeable act ? If they have denied Christ before men, 
is it not right that they should also confess him before 
men ? Is it not meet, that at the commencement of 
the Christian's life, he should take up his cross in the 
presence of those who by his example may have been 
led into sin ? Would not a disciple in a right state of 
mind do this from choice, and insist upon doing it ? 

But this is not all. If we believe that Christ has 
commanded any thing, be it ever so small, it is morally 
dangerous to decline the doing of It, because we choose 
to call it a little thing. This principle once admitted, 
where shall it end ? Why shall we not repeat this 
plea, as often as it suits our convenience, until every 
precept which we wish to escape seems a little one, and 
therefore we may be at liberty to ignore it ? With 
these views, whatever be the consequences, we prefer to 
obey the simple command of the Saviour. 

Few things are more impressive than the act of 
Christian baptism. In the sight of the whole world, the 



92 IMPBESSIVENESS OF BAPTISM. 

candidate is buried with ■ Christ, with him renouncing 
allegiance to the world which he formerly served. He 
rises from the water as Christ rose from the dead ; to 
live a new life, the life of which Christ is the author and 
finisher. The act may be an offense to the world, but 
it is glorious in the sight of God, of angels in heaven, 
and of saints on earth. 

I do not, however, propose to enter into this contro- 
versy. My object is merely to set forth the views which 
we entertain on this subject. The correctness of our 
opinions on the apostolic mode of baptism is now so 
generally conceded, that argument in its favor is almost 
a work of supererogation. 



NOTE. — In this and a following number, the New Testament is refer- 
red to as our only guide in matters of religious faith and practice. It 
was intended by this assertion, as the context will show, to exclude the 
authority of tradition and of all uninspired men claiming the power to 
legislate for the church of Christ. Several writers, in commenting on 
these remarks, have thought it their duty to state that the author denies 
the divine inspiration of the Old Testament. To such an imputation he 
does not think himself called on to reply. He, however, believes the 
New Testament to be the standard by which the precepts and teachings 
of the former revelation are to be judged, and that, thus, it is our only 
rule of faith and practice. Its relation to the Old Testament is very dif- 
ferent from its relation to the doctrines and traditions of men. In the 
one case it is the relation of the meridian sun to the preceding twilight, 
in the other, the relation of the meridian sun to perfect darkness. It is 
my intention to discuss this subject at large, as soon as previous engage- 
ments will permit. 



SUBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 93 



XYII. 

SUBJECTS OF BAPTISM. — REASON WHY BAPTISTS BO NOT BAPTIZE INFANTS. 
— WE ARE NOT CONVINCED BY THE VIEWS GIVEN IN FAVOR OF INFANT 
BAPTISM. — ITS EFFECT UPON THE CHURCH. 

In my last paper, I referred to the mode of baptism, 
as a distinguishing feature of the religious practice of 
Baptists. We also differ from other denominations of 
Christians, in respect to the subjects of this ordinance. 

1. The rule which we adopt in our interpretation of 
religious duty, governs us in this case also. We bap- 
tize by immersion, simply because this mode was, as we 
believe, commanded by Christ, and practiced by his 
apostles. So, on the other hand, we decline to bap- 
tize children, because we can find no command on this 
subject in the teachings of Christ, and we find neither 
precept nor example of such baptism in the history of 
the apostles. Here we rest ; and until such precept or 
such example can be produced, w^e must continue to be- 
lieve such baptism to be without scriptural authority. 
To this authority we hope that we shall always willing- 
ly submit, but to nothing else can we bow in the mat- 
ter of religion, without doing violence to our conscience, 
and being unfaithful to our Master. 

2. But we go further. We conceive that if the bap- 
tism of infants had been the practice of the apostolic 
age, it could not possibly have escaped mention either 
in the Acts of the Apostles or the Epistles. But it is 
never in a single instance alluded to. We hear of 
believers being baptized, both men and ivomen, but w r e 
hear not a word of children. It is true, that in some 



94 REASONS FOR REJECTING 

two or three cases the baptism of households is recorded; 
but, even here, the Holy Spirit has seemed to take 
peculiar pains to prevent misconception, by informing 
us in some way or other that these households were be- 
lievers. 

3. To the same effect is the command of our ascend- 
ing Saviour, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, bap- 
tizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is evidently meant 
to be restricted to those who are taught, or made dis- 
ciples. We can therefore baptize no one who is incapa- 
ble of being thus taught or made a disciple. 

4. All the allusions to the ordinance of baptism in 
the New Testament, refer to the baptized as regenerate 
persons, who have been buried with Christ and are risen 
with him, who have put off the filth of the flesh, etc., 
etc. This could not certainly be said of unconscious 
infants, who could have no spiritual exercises, and who 
could by no possibility make them known. 

For these reasons, we feel ourselves bound to decline 
all semblance of infant baptism, and to bear our testi- 
mony against it soberly but firmly, as an innovation up- 
on the doctrines and example of Christ and his apostles. 

If it be said that this is intended as a consecration of 
the child to God, a manifest duty of pious parents ; we 
reply, it is undoubtedly the duty of every pious parent 
to consecrate himself, his children, and all that he has 
to God. This is well ; but what has this to do with 
baptism ? Suppose this done, what should prevent the 
person so baptized as an act of his parents, from being 
afterward baptized, if ever he professed faith as an act 
of his own ? The two acts are essentially different in 



INFANT BAPTISM. 95 

I 

character, and surely, without a special command, the 
one should never be substituted for the other. Suppose, 
then, this were the ground for the baptism of infants, it 
has no connection whatever with the baptism of adults. 
And yet more, we ask who has required this at our 
hands ? Where, in the Scriptures, is this consecration, 
a general duty applying to every thing as well as chil- 
dren, in any manner associated with the ordinance of 
baptism ? The formula is, I baptize thee into the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
This is understood by all evangelical Christians to mean, 
in the case of adults, just what we understand by it. 
But in the case of children, our brethren of other de- 
nominations understand it to mean, I consecrate this 
child to God, as I do every thing else that God has 
given me. Can the same words be intended by the 
Holy Spirit to mean ideas so essentially different ? 
Were there two distinct ordinances, would there not 
have been two different formulas of baptism ? 

But we are told that we ought to baptize our chil- 
dren, because baptism came in the room of circumcision. 

To this, again we reply, We do not find this asserted 
anywhere in the New Testament. We see no ground 
for even an inference that this is the case. And even 
were there ground for an inference, we dare not, on our 
inference, command as a precept of Christ what he has 
never commanded. The worst corruptions of the Romish 
church are founded on precisely such inferences. We, 
as Protestants, hold this to be a sufficient reason why 
we can not conform to the opinions and practice of our 
brethren of other denominations in this matter. 

But we go further. If baptism took the place of 



96 CIKCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 

circumcision, it must have taken that place either in a 
physical or spiritual sense. If in a physical sense, it 
must follow the same law, and be attended by the same 
consequences. Thus, every Hebrew was commanded to 
circumcise his children, and every Christian parent, it is 
said, in the same manner is commanded to baptize his 
children. But the child thus circumcised was at once 
a member of the Jewish church, entitled to all its ordi- 
nances. The church of the Old Testament was an 
hereditary church, it followed directly in the line of 
blood. If in this sense baptism came in the room of 
circumcision, then the church of Christ is an hereditary 
church, and all the children of the members of a church 
and their descendants forever, are members of the church 
of Christ, just as Jews are at the present day by descent 
members of the Jewish church. 

If it be said that baptism takes the place of the 
Abrahamic covenant, we reply in the same manner. 
If it is governed by the same law, then not only a Chris- 
tian's children, but all the males in his family, must be 
baptized ; and they and their posterity are, by natural 
descent, members of the church of Christ. If, how- 
ever, it be said, that baptism takes the place of circum- 
cision in a spiritual sense, then hereditary descent is 
thrown out of the question. Abraham is the type of a 
believer. Every true believer is a child of Abraham, 
and is, for this cause, entitled to baptism. If ye be of 
faith, then are ye Abraham's children according to the 
promise. To this doctrine we do not object. It is what 
we believe, though we suppose ourselves to have a much 
more direct way of arriving at the same conclusion. 

If it be urged upon us that infant baptism is spoken 



TENDENCY OF INFANT BAPTISM. 97 

of by the writers of the second or third century, we are 
willing to grant all on this subject that can be legiti- 
mately proved ; but we can not fail to observe, that 
among the early writers, it rests not on the command 
of Christ, but on the doctrine of the necessity of baptism 
to salvation. We reject the foundation and the super- 
structure that is built upon it. Besides, what error is 
there, either in doctrine or practice, that can not be 
supported on the same authority ? If we go beyond 
the New Testament for our authority in matters of 
faith or practice, where shall we stop short of all the 
errors of Romanism. ? The ground on which the argu- 
ment for infant baptism is frequently founded is, as it 
seems to us, large enough to sustain the doctrine of ex- 
treme unction, the various orders of the priesthood, 
auricular confession, and the most corrupt errors of the 
Catholic church. 

And finally, we seriously believe that the general 
tendency to hereditary membership has been the great 
curse of the Christian church. This has laid the foun- 
dation of established and national churches, and its 
universal result must be, in a few generations, to break 
down all distinction between the church and the world. 
If the principles on which infant baptism is founded be 
carried to their true result, they must inevitably end 
here. We believe in a spiritual church, and we would 
exclude from it every thing that does not worship God 
in spirit and in truth. The reason why infant baptism, 
in this country, does not work out these results is, in 
our opinion, that the principles on which the practice 
is founded, are not carried to their legitimate conse- 
quences. We think our brethren are in these respects 

5 



98 RESTRICTED COMMUNION. 

inconsistent with themselves. We rejoice that they are 
so, for it is infinitely better to be inconsistent in doing 
right, than consistent in doing wrong. 

Such are some of our reasons for differing from our 
brethren of other denominations on the subject of bap- 
tism. We baptize by immersion, because we believe it 
was so commanded. We do not baptize infants, because 
we find for such an ordinance neither example nor com- 
mand in the New Testament. And still further in the 
case of infants, as neither the manner of the act, nor 
the spiritual exercises essential to the act, as we under- 
stand it, are present, we do not perceive how we can 
recognize such an act as the baptism of the New Testa- 
ment. 

For this reason vre were formerly designated Ana- 
baptists. We baptize those who have been sprinkled 
in infancy, because we do not consider them to have 
been baptized. We consider ourselves not to baptize 
again, but to baptize those who have never yet submit- 
ted themselves to this ordinance. So with respect to 
restricted communion, the doctrine held by most Bap- 
tists m this country. We, with most other denomina- 
tions, believe that a person must be baptized before he 
is admitted to the ordinance of the Supper. If, then, 
we do not admit to the table of the Lord those whom 
we do not belive to be baptized, we do precisely the same 
as our brethren who differ from us. The question may 
yet be raised among us all, whether this is the true limit 
to communion ; but as we hold it in common with our 
brethren of other Christian denominations, it is a gen- 
eral question, in which we are no more interested than 
others. 



ADMISSION TO THE M I N I » 1 ■ R Y . 99 

These remarks are not made in trie spirit of contro- 
versy. Inasmuch as inquiry is frequently made respect- 
ing our views on these subjects, it has seemed proper, in 
a plain manner, thus to set forth what we believe is com- 
monly received among us. As we differ from the greater 
part of the Christian world in these respects, it is well 
that the reasons of this difference should be distinctly 
seen. We believe that we act conscientiously. We freely 
concede the same belief to others. We will cooperate 
with them in all that does not compromise fidelity to 
the Master. We can go no further, nor should they 
require it of us. We are by no means particularly 
anxious to propagate our sentiments. We freely and 
frankly bear our testimony to what we believe to be the 
truth, referring those who differ from us to the teach- 
ings of Christ and his apostles for our justification. 
We believe the points of difference to be important in 
themselves, but vastly more important on account of 
the principles which they involve. To us they seem to 
hold a place among the corner-stones of Protestantism. 



XVIII. 

MODE OF ADMISSION TO THE MINISTRY BY THE CHURCH. — NO BETTER 
METHOD. — BUT CHURCHES MUST DO THEIR DUTY IN THIS MATTER. — 
ENTERING THE MINISTRY MERELY AS AN AGREEABLE PROFESSION. 

I intended, at an earlier period, to have offered some,, 
suggestions on the subject of the licensure and ordina- 
tion of ministers. What I should perhaps have done 
before, I will endeavor to do now. 

I have often heard our mode of licensing ministers 



100 VAKIOUS MODES OF ADMISSION 

spoken of with marked disrespect. It has been said, 
How can we have any improvement in the ministry 
while the authority of licensing ministers is held by 
the church ? What do common, uneducated brethren 
know about the fitness of a man to preach the gospel ? 
I do not say that other men have heard such questions, 
I only say I have heard them myself. 

Now with this whole course of remark I have not the 
remotest sympathy. I believe that our mode is not 
only as good as any other, but further than this, that 
it is, more nearly than any other, conformed to the 
principles of the New Testament. Let our churches, 
then, never surrender this authority to single ministers, 
or to councils, or to any other organization whatever. 
I believe that Christ has placed it in their hands, and 
they have no right to delegate it. Let them use it in 
the manner required by the Master, and it can be placed 
in no safer hands. 

In the Episcopal Church the candidate is admitted 
to the ministry by the Bishop. In the Lutheran 
Church, I believe, substantially in the same manner. 
In the Presbyterian Church, it is done by Presbyteries. 
Have these means been successful in keeping the min- 
istry pure in doctrine and holy in practice ? How is it 
in the Established Church of England ? How is it in 
the Lutheran churches in Germany, of whose tender 
mercies our own brother Oncken has had so large an 
experience ? How is it with the old Presbyterian 
Church of Scotland ? Of the former condition of this 
church we may inform ourselves by reading " Wither- 
spoon's Characteristics/' How much they have im- 
proved of late years, the secession of the Free Church 



TO THE MINISTRY 101 

might possibly inform us. But to bring this matter to 
a test, would we exchange our ministry, just as it is, for 
the ministry of either of these churches at the present 
day ? Or, take our own country, where freedom of 
opinion, and the watchfulness of other denominations 
has had a powerful influence over these churches in 
matters of admission to the ministry, and look at the 
result. The object of a church of Christ is to subdue 
the world to God. Which mode of admitting men to 
the ministry has here been most successful in this re- 
spect ? For a long time after the settlement of the 
colonies, Baptist sentiments were confined almost ex- 
clusively to Khode Island. Some of our Bhode Island 
ministers were whipped and imprisoned for holding a 
private religious meeting in Lynn, Massachusetts. The 
Bevolution, however, abolished, for the most part, the 
power of the established orders, and our sentiments be- 
gan to extend. At this period we were few and feeble. 
The men have but recently died who remembered when 
our whole denomination embraced but two or three as- 
sociations. The land was filled with Congregational, 
Presbyterian, and Episcopalian churches. We now, I 
presume, outnumber them all, and we should have out- 
numbered them to a vastly greater extent, had we not 
swerved from our original practices and principles for 
the sake of imitating those of our neighbors. We need 
not certainly speak lightly of a ministry, or of a mode 
of introducing men to the ministry, which has led to 
such remarkable results. 

We want no change in our mode of licensing candi- 
dates. We do, however, need that the subject should 
receive more attention, and that in this, as in every 



102 DUTY OF CHURCHES 

thing connected with the church of Christ, we should 
specially act in the fear of G-od. If a church will act 
in this matter, with conscientious desire to please the 
Master, we know of no better hands into which we 
could intrust the power of admission to the ministry. 
Some twenty-five years since, I knew a church refuse a 
license to two young men, to whom, I presume, it would 
have been readily granted by almost any Bishop or Pres- 
bytery. Both were graduates of college ; one was 
among the first scholars in his class, but his delivery 
was so exceedingly dull that he could by no possibility 
interest an audience. He was refused a license because 
the brethren could obtain no evidence that he was 
called to the work, inasmuch as he had no aptness to 
teach. He, however, persevered, obtained a license 
from some church less scrupulous, and if I mistake not, 
went through a Theological Seminary, and received 
what is called a thorough training, but I think he was 
never called to be the pastor of any church, and so far 
as I know, never entered upon the work of the ministry. 
The other was the case of a young man of brilliant 
powers of elocution, and very respectable scholarship, 
but of erratic and eccentric character. The same 
church refused to license him, because they deemed 
him wanting in the sobriety of character and consist- 
ency of example which are required in a minister of 
Jesus Christ. Subsequent events proved that they did 
not act without good reason. If all our churches would 
act in this manner, we should want to go no further to 
find a safe depository of the power of admitting men to 
the ministry. If, on the other hand, we are false to 
ourselves, and treat this subject as a matter of form, to 



TO CANDIDATES. 103 

be acted upon without thought or consideration, it is 
not our principles but ourselves that are in fault. Any 
system that man could devise would make mischief, if 
it were treated with the thoughtlessness which I fear is 
fast overspreading many of our churches. 

Let us ; then, look for a moment upon this subject as 
our churches profess to understand it. We believe that 
there is such a thing as a call to the ministry ; that is, 
that a man is moved to enter upon this work by the 
Holy Spirit. This call is manifested in two ways ; first, 
in his own heart, and secondly, in the hearts of his 
brethren. So far as he himself is concerned, it appears 
in the form of a solemn conviction of duty resting upon 
him with such weight that he believes it impossible for 
him to please Christ in any other way than in preaching 
the gospel. He dares not enter upon any other pur- 
suit until he has made every effort in his power to be 
admitted to this work. I beg these remarks to be re- 
membered. They may be considered by many as obso- 
lete and behind the age. It may be so, and yet the 
age may be wrong. There is a word of prophecy surer 
than this age or than any age. I know it is common 
to hear men, even among Baptists, talk of the choice of 
a profession, and of balancing in their minds whether 
they should be lawyers, ministers, teachers, or physi- 
cians. They will say, perhaps, they dislike the turmoil 
of politics, the hard and irregular labor of a physician, 
the monotony of teaching ; they are fond of study, of 
writing, and of quiet mental improvement ; and be- 
sides, they can enter the ministry, be married and set- 
tled so much earlier and so much more easily than 
would be possible in any other profession, that they, on 



104 OF CHOOSING THE MINISTRY 

the whole, prefer it. Now I would always dissuade 
such a man from entering the ministry at all. If he 
could, with just as clear a conscience, be a lawyer as a 
minister, let him be a lawyer by all means. The church 
of Christ can do without him. He proposes to enter 
the ministry of reconciliation from merely selfish mo- 
tives, and the Saviour has no occasion for his services. 
He makes a convenience of the ministry of the word ; 
he uses it to promote his own objects ; he is a hireling 
whose own the sheep are not. If he begins in this way, 
in this way he will, unless the grace of God prevent, so 
continue. He will soon tire of the work and leave it 
for something else, or he will continue in it to shed 
around him on every side the example of well-educated, 
cold, worldly-minded selfishness. 

And here, at the risk of being considered a Puritan 
of the deepest dye, I must hazard another remark. 
This notion of considering the ministry in the same 
light as any other profession, to be preferred merely on 
the ground of personal advantage, is working very 
grave evils in the church of Christ. I rejoice, however, 
to declare that I believe these views to be much less 
prevalent among Baptists than among other denomina- 
tions. A young man preparing for the ministry with 
these views, feels himself much in the condition of any 
other professional student. He takes frequently a pride 
in sinking every thing that smacks of the cloth. He is 
anxious to appear a man of the world. He will talk 
over fashionable insipidity and personal gossip, with the 
most amusing volubility. He converses about his ser- 
mons as a young lawyer would about his pleas or 
political harangues. He is more at home at the even- 



AS A PROFESSION. 105 

ing party than at the bed-side of the dying, and is 
oftener seen at the concert than the prayer-meeting 
If any one should suggest that such a life was not quite 
consistent with the character of a young evangelist, he 
would probably ask, with most amusing innocence, 
What is the harm of all this ? He means to discharge 
his professional duties, and this being done, why should 
he not indulge his tastes and love of society just as well 
as any other professional man ? The apostle James 
seemed to think his question unanswerable, when he 
asked, " Doth a fountain send forth at the same place 
sweet water and bitter ? Can a fig-tree, my brethren, 
bear olive berries, either a vine figs ? So can no fount- 
ain both yield salt water and fresh." Many of our 
young evangelists, however, have found out the way in 
which this can be done. The same lips can discuss the 
insipidities of fashion during the week, and the solemn 
truths of repentance toward Grod and the eternal judg- 
ment, on the Sabbath. Brethren, these things ought 
not so to be. 

Suppose such a man enters the ministry and assumes 
the care of souls. He is continually comparing himself 
with men of other professions. They strive to advance 
themselves, why should he not do the same ? His 
object is not to convert souls, but to distinguish himself 
as a writer or speaker, and thus to secure some more 
eligible professional situation, a church in a city, a 
splendid edifice, a congregation of the rich, the fashion- 
able, and the well-conditioned. Or, he may desire the 
fame of a lecturer, or may seek for any other form of 
distinction and notoriety to which success in the pulpit 
may conduct him. If the ministry of the gospel is like 

5* 



106 EVIDENCES OF A CALL 

other professions, why should he not ? But if the Holy 
Ghost has called him to follow in the footseps of Christ, 
and has committed immortal souls to his charge, and 
if he will be called to account for the proof which he 
has given of the ministry ; in a word, if religion he a 
reality and no sham, if the crown of glory be bestowed 
only on those who fight the good fight, if only those 
who turn sinners to righteousness shall shine as the 
stars forever — why, then, it is a very different matter. 



XIX. 

EVIDENCES OF A CALL TO THE MINISTRY OUR OWN CONSCIOUSNESS AND 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR BRETHREN. — DUTY OF A CHURCH TO A 
CANDIDATE. — MISTAKES IN THIS MATTER. 

In my last paper, I referred to the conviction in a 
man's own mind of his duty to preach the gospel, as 
one of the evidences of a call to the ministry. I en- 
deavored to show that this was essential. If a man has 
no other feeling than a desire to enter the ministry 
because he thinks it a more agreeable calling than law 
or medicine, he had better not enter it. His motive is 
wholly selfish. His desire is simply to please himself. 
He will never labor in earnest, for his motive is low, 
worldly, and sinful ; for it is surely sinful to profess to 
undertake the work of God, from a desire to please 
ourselves. And besides, the same motive which led a man 
into the ministry would as easily lead him out of it. If 
he found that the ministry was a very different thing from 
what he had supposed, if he found that it would not 
elevate him to 1 he position after which he aspired, what 



TO THE MINISTKY. 107 

is there to prevent him from abandoning it altogether 
and seeking some more congenial occupation ? Is not 
this the reason why, at the present time, so many are 
leaving the ministry, and engaging in secular or semi- 
secular pursuits. 

But suppose a man convinced that he is called of 
God to preach. He could not turn a deaf ear to this 
impression without doing violence to his conscience, 
and, in his own view, disobeying God. He feels that a 
woe would rest upon hira if he did not preach the 
gospel, and that a curse would rest upon all his en- 
deavors if he left this duty unfulfilled. Here, then, is 
one evidence of his call. 

But this is not enough. We may frequently mistake 
our motives. We may overrate our capacity. We may 
thus run before we are sent. Hence we frequently see 
men in the ministry who have manifestly mistaken their 
calling, w^ho are useless as preachers, while they might 
have been very useful in some other situation. What 
then, in addition, is needed, in order to assure a man that 
he has not mistaken the voice of God in this matter ? 

I answer, he in the next place lays his convictions 
before his brethren, who know 7 his walk and conversa- 
tion. He asks them to tell him, in the fear of God, 
whether or not their convictions correspond with his 
own, whether or not they in truth believe that he is 
called to undertake this w r ork. They are bound to take 
up this subject with solemn deliberation. They do 
wrong, if they do not employ all the means in their 
power to come to a right decision. They must hear 
him preach, until they are able to form an opinion of 
his gifts, his knowledge of the Scriptures, and his 



108 OF DIVINE GUIDANCE 

aptness to teach. If, after a sufficient trial, they can 
not be convinced that the brother possesses ministerial 
gifts, they must honestly tell him so. He may then 
conclude that he has mistaken his duty, and that with 
a good conscience he may devote himself to some other 
calling. It was well that it was in his heart to build 
the temple of the Lord, and he shall have his reward, 
though the Master sees fit to commit the work to 
another. If, on the other hand, his brethren are con- 
vinced by their knowledge of his Christian character, 
aptness to teach, and acquaintance with the Scriptures, 
that he is called to the ministry, this union and har- 
mony of his convictions with theirs may assure him that 
he has not mistaken the voice speaking within him, but 
that it is his duty to devote himself, either wholly or in 
part, to the ministration of the word. 

It is not improbable that to some of my readers all 
this may seem nothing better than fanaticism, mysti- 
cism, and, as they may possibly call it, humbug. They 
will ask how a church meeting can judge of the quali- 
fications of a man who has spent half of his life in 
studies of which they knovf nothing, and may intimate 
that this notion of the interference of God, for the sake 
of enabling men to decide such a question, is childish 
and impertinent. I am prepared to meet all this. 
There are truths which some men can never see, but 
they may be truths notwithstanding. The natural 
mind understandeth not the things of the Spirit, neither 
can he understand them, for they are spiritually dis- 
cerned. To all such objections I reply by asking the 
simple question, Is there any Holy Ghost ? In the 
face of all this ridicule, I maintain that he who has 



IN ASCERTAINING A CALL. 109 

ascended on high, at the present moment confers gifts 
upon his disciples for the building up of his church ; 
and that he reveals the presence of these gifts by the 
conviction which he awakens in the mind of the indi- 
vidual, and in the minds of his brethren concerning him. 
I know of no better way than this by which a man may 
be introduced to the work of serving Christ in the gos- 
pel of regeneration. If any man knows of any better, 
let him propose it. It is not sufficient that he think 
lightly of this way. This is not enough. Let him 
propose his more excellent way. Let him do it openly, 
plainly, without disguise, and make no higgling about it. 
Let us have both ways plainly set before us ; let the people 
of G-od place them side by side, and determine which is 
according to the teachings of the New Testament. 

It will be seen, from what I have said, that the act 
of a church in licensing a candidate, is ■ one requiring 
grave and serious consideration. 

It is a matter of great consequence, both to the can- 
didate and to the church of Christ. To him it involves 
frequently a change in his whole course of life, and a 
new direction to all his energies. If he enter upon a 
calling for which he has no aptitude, his life is, for the 
most part, thrown away. When a Christian brother asks 
our advice on a subject of so much magnitude, we are 
surely bound to give him the soundest and most delib- 
erate opinion in our power. To the church of Christ it 
is a matter of moment. To advise a brother to leave 
his present field of usefulness and enter upon another, 
for which he has no adaptation, is to throw away an 
important helper, and burden the ministry with a 
brother who, in that situation, can render it no service. 



110 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES. 

But this is not all. The brother asks for our con- 
viction as to his call to the work of the ministry. When 
we vote to grant him a license, we deliberately say that 
we, in the fear of God, believe him to be called by the 
Holy Spirit to this work. We can not say this in truth, 
unless we have taken means to ascertain his qualifica- 
tions. We can not say it in truth, unless, having taken 
means to ascertain the facts, we have arrived at this 
deliberate conclusion. If we have arrived at the con- 
clusion, we shall with pleasure make it known to our 
brother. If we have not arrived at it, we can not say 
that we have, without incurring the guilt of falsehood. 
It may give us pain to disappoint the expectations of a 
brother. This, to be sure, we w r ould gladly avoid, but 
we can not make a lie about it. We can not say that 
we believe one thing, when, in our hearts, we believe the 
opposite. 

Such seems to me to be the nature of the obligation 
under which we are placed in the act of licensing a can- 
didate for the ministry. I fear, however, that we have 
become very thoughtless on this subject. It is fre- 
quently said, if the brother wants to preach, let him 
preach, and on this ground a license is voted. Now this 
is manifestly wrong. If he wants to preach, he can 
preach without our sanction, if he can find any one to 
hear him, and if he preach no heresy we can not prevent 
him by any ecclesiastical proceeding. This is not what 
he wants. He desires to know whether his brethren 
recognize in him the gifts which will render him useful 
in this peculiar field of labor, and this is the question 
which, in the fear of God, they are called upon to an- 
swer. Again : I have seen license granted without any 



PKOSPECTIVE GIFTS. Ill 

inquiry, on the ground that the license is only for a 
year. This is merely trifling with a brother. He asks 
us for our conviction, and we give him what is no con- 
viction at all, because the license is only for a limited 
time. Sometimes the fear of offending friends and 
relations, urges a church to the same result. All this 
is bad. It is acting falsehoods. We are asked to an- 
swer one question, and we answer another, when truth 
and the love of Christ would clearly teach us to speak 
in simplicity and godly sincerity. 

Another error on this subject is creeping into our 
churches, of a mischievous character. A young man, 
perhaps even a boy, gives evidence of piety and joins a 
church. He, with the natural fervor of youth, exhorts 
his companions in a conference meeting, or he may have 
distinguished himself in school as a promising pupil. 
It is at once suggested that he should study for the 
ministry. The Education Society is ready to receive 
him, if he can present a testimonial from the church. 
He is too young to furnish any evidence of adaptedness 
to the ministry. To license such a person would be ab- 
surd. The following course is adopted : the church 
certifies that they believe him to have talents, which, 
with proper education, will fit him for the ministry ; 
that is, they do not believe him now to possess minis- 
terial gifts, but that education will either furnish or 
develop them. With this certificate he is admitted a 
beneficiary, and it is certain that, unless some gross 
immorality prevent, he will become a minister. In the 
course of six or eight years he presents himself for a 
license. He has learned to write a religious discourse. 
At the recommendation of the church, he has spent a 



112 EVIL OF EDUCATING VERY YOUNG MEN 

large part of his life in a preparation which has, to a 
great extent, disqualified him for any other calling. 
They seem to have no choice, and a license is a matter 
of course. 

The evil here is alarming. The mere youth is placed 
in a course which decides his calling for life ; a calling 
which he can not leave without seeming to have aposta- 
tized, and he must go through it or be disgraced. Young 
persons are not unfrequently placed in this course at an 
age when no judicious parent would allow a son to choose 
for himself irrevocably a secular profession. And yet 
we urge young persons, under these circumstances, to 
pledge themselves to the ministry. Of their course of 
life while pursuing their education, the church knows 
nothing. Whether they have been thoughtful or 
thoughtless, industrious or idle, earnest Christians or 
mere formal professors, but few ever make any inquiry. 
The license is granted, and the young man is, by their 
authority, a candidate for ordination. Can this be the 
way to build up a spiritual and earnest ministry ? 

Of the. temptations which beset a young man when 
pursuing a course of education, few persons are aware; 
and it requires deeper piety, and a more matured char- 
acter, to resist them, than is commonly supposed. The 
beneficiaries of Education Societies possess, in general, 
the same moral and religious standing as other young 
men in college who profess personal piety. Now, sup- 
pose twenty young men, professors of religion, to enter 
college, and pursue their course to the close. It will be 
well if five of these twenty maintain a consistent relig- 
ious character, attending meetings for prayer with con- 
stancy, on every occasion standing up fearlessly for what 



AS MINISTERIAL CANDIDATES. 113 

they know to be right, and hearing testimony every- 
where in favor of religion. Of the remainder, a part 
would rank among the timidly conscientious, willing to 
be on the side of right, where there was nothing to lose. 
Some would become Christians only in name, known to 
profess Christ only by their presence at the communion 
table ; some would be seen equally active for Christ and 
for the world, and a few would be known as the worst 
enemies of religion, taking part with the irreligious and 
profane, and furnishing by their participation in it, an 
excuse to others for every form of ill-doing. I do not 
think that in this statement I exaggerate the facts. In 
specially favored localities it may be otherwise, but I 
think, after some consideration, that I have made the 
supposition no more unfavorable than the reality. Now, 
is it safe to take these twenty together, and place them 
under circumstances in which they will all, if they 
choose, enter the ministry ; nay, where they must enter 
it, or lose character among their friends ? Does not 
a system of this kind require some modification ? Can 
we thus fill the ministry with such laborers as the Lord 
will bless ? Are we not expecting from education w T hat 
education can never do, nay, what it is very liable to 
undo ? Would it not be better to wait a little longer, 
and try our candidates further, before we place them in 
such a course ? Are we not in danger of laying our 
hands upon novices, and thus doing an irreparable in- 
jury both to them and to the church of Christ ? 

I write these things with pain. I am, however, deal- 
ing with facts, and facts which should be in the posses- 
sion of every one who is called to form a judgment in 
this matter. 



114 ORDINATION. 

XX. 

ORDINATION. — ITS NATURE. — IMPORTANCE OF EXAMINATION OF THE CAN- 
DIDATE. — IN NO OTHER MANNER CAN THE MINISTRY BE IMPROVED. 

In my last number I alluded to the manner in which 
the Baptist churches grant licenses to preach the gospel. 
It may not be amiss to add a few words on the subject 
of ordination. 

The license is generally given at first with limitation 
in respect to time. It is renewable every year, and ex- 
presses merely, that the church of which the candidate 
is a member, approves of his design to preach whenever 
an opportunity may be offerred. By ordination, a licen- 
tiate is admitted permanently to the pastoral office, and 
it is generally understood that he is to make this the 
great work of his life. A single church does not ordain. 
It calls a council, generally representing the churches in 
the vicinity, who are present by their minister and such 
private brethren as they may select. At the time ap- 
pointed, these delegates meet and organize themselves 
by the choice of a Moderator and Clerk. The doings 
of the church calling the council are read. The candi- 
date gives a narration of his conversion, views of the 
ministry, and of his call to the ministerial office, and 
presents a brief synopsis of the doctrines which he be- 
lieves, and purposes to preach. If these are satisfactory 
to his brethren, they resolve to proceed to his ordination. 
The various services are assigned to the several brethren 
composing the council. The candidate is set apart by 
prayer and laying on of hands. The minutes of the 
council are recorded in the church books, and thus the 
service is completed. 



MODIFICATIONS SUGGESTED. 115 

So far as the theory is concerned, we seem, in this 
matter, to need no change. The churches in the vicinity 
may be considered as the representatives of all the Bap- 
tist churches. The churches represented appear, as is 
proper, by ministers and private members. They obtain 
such evidence as satisfies them that the candidate is 
called, not merely to preach, but to devote himself to 
the work of preaching, and they set him apart to this 
work accordingly. I do not perceive how our custom, 
in this respect, could be improved. Were I to suggest 
any alteration, it would be in the ordination service. 
Following more and .more closely in the footsteps of 
Congregationalists and Presbyterians, we have made it 
much longer and more complicated than formerly. And 
besides, it seems to be taken for granted, that a jjcirt, 
as it is called, must be assigned to every member of the 
council. This seems a little puerile, and might proper- 
ly be corrected. 

It will be at once apprehended that the act of a coun- 
cil in this matter is one of no ordinary solemnity. The 
candidate has previously asked the church, whether, in 
their opinion, the Holy Ghost has called him to pub- 
lish the good news of salvation, wherever he may have 
opportunity. They have decided in the affirmative. 
After a sufficient time for trial, in the presence of the 
churches, a council of elders and private brethren is 
assembled, and of them he inquires, whether, in their 
judgment he is called of God to devote his life to the 
work of an evangelist or a pastor. It is natural to sup- 
pose that, before answering this question, the council 
would take pains to ascertain the facts on which their 
opinion must be founded; that they would inquire into 



116 DUTIES OF A COUNCIL 

the Christian walk and conversation of the candidate ; 
his manner of life since he contemplated entering the 
ministry ; his character as a man of piety in the acad- 
emy, college, or seminary, in which, if he have been a 
student, the last few years of his life have been passed ; 
the impression which he has made on the churches 
among whom he has labored; and, besides all this, that 
they would hear him themselves, in order to be able to 
judge from his gifts whether he be called to the work. 
Besides, it would be expected that a company of grave 
and solid men would desire to ascertain the knowledge 
possessed by the candidate of the way of salvation, and 
that they would minutely and carefully examine him in 
some of the cardinal doctrines of revelation. The strict- 
ness of this examination would depend much on the ad- 
vantages of the candidate. The greater his advantages, 
the stricter should be the examination. No precise 
amount of knowledge should be specified as absolutely 
necessary, but the fact should be determined, that the 
candidate was a sober and earnest inquirer into the 
truth of the New Testament, and that, besides knowing 
what w^as necessary to his own salvation, he was able to 
teach others also. It is natural to expect that an ordina- 
tion would be a season of moral thoughtfulness, solemn 
deliberation, and earnest prayer for divine direction ; 
that the elder brethren would point out any thing de- 
fective in their younger brother, and unite in an effort, 
as far as was in their power, to render him a faithful 
minister of Jesus Christ. Would not such a course 
do much to improve the character of the ministry ? 
Where is there a minister of Jesus Christ who would 
not now thank G-od, if such a course had been pursued 



TOO OFTEN NEGLECTED. 117 

when he was entering upon his work ? It is somewhat 
strange that, while so much is said at present about 
raising the standard of ministerial qualifications, so 
little attention is paid to this subject. The Methodists 
carry out very thoroughly a system of examination for 
all their licentiates, and this is one reason of their un- 
paralleled success. 

I fear, however, that these important considerations 
are frequently neglected. The council ordinarily con- 
venes on the day that has been publicly announced for 
the ordination. They have no time for any such in- 
quiries as I have suggested, and they are, therefore, 
never made. It frequently happens that not a member 
of the council has ever heard the candidate preach, or 
has the means of knowing any thing of importance re- 
specting his qualifications. The statement of the can- 
didate's call to the ministry, and of his views of doctrine, 
have almost passed into a stereotype form. An ordina- 
tion, in short, is in danger of being considered merely a 
pleasant meeting of ministers — the private brethren in 
attendance being very few — to transact a matter of 
form, to be kindly entertained, and attend the ordina- 
tion service in the afternoon. Is this the nature of 
ordination as it is set before us in the New Testament? 
Is this the answer of a good conscience, when a brother 
solemnly inquires of us whether we believe that Grod 
has set him apart for the pastoral office ? 

To illustrate what I mean on this subject, allow me 
to refer to an ordination which I attended but a few 
years since, in New England. The candidate was a 
young man of good education and religious standing, 
and he had preached as a candidate for the church that 



118 EXAMPLE OF THE 

called him to ordination, for a reasonable length, of time. 
Letters were sent out inviting a council, composed of 
delegates from the neighboring churches, and as usual, 
the parts were assigned to the several members in ad- 
vance. The council was to meet in the morning, and 
the ordination services were appointed for the afternoon. 
At the time specified but few members appeared, but 
they dropped in one by one, on the arrival of the cars. 
A considerable period had elapsed, after the hour of 
meeting, before the council was called to order. When 
the church was called on to state to the council its ac- 
tion in the premises, hardly any member was present ; 
the clerk had not yet arrived ; he could not be found ; 
and there were really no documents on which the coun- 
cil could properly proceed. It was determined to com- 
mence without them, and read them as soon as they 
could be produced. When the candidate was called 
upon, it appeared that he was not a member of the 
church over which he was to be ordained, his letter of 
dismission from the church in the town where he had 
been residing, not having yet come to hand. There 
was, therefore, no documentary evidence that he was 
a member of any church at all. After giving an account 
of his conversion, and the usual statement of his call to 
the ministry, and a very general view of the doctrines 
which he believed, the council was invited to ask the 
candidate any questions they thought fit. After a 
short pause, an elderly minister who happened to be 
present, began to question the candidate on some of the 
fundamental doctrines of the New Testament. The 
questions were such as any person who had studied the 
word of Grod carefully, should be able to answer on 



PRACTICE OF COUNCILS. 119 

the instant, and yet I heard them spoken of as consti- 
tuting a very searching examination. They had, how- 
ever, been continued but a short time, when it was 
evident that the business would not be completed in 
season for dinner, if they were much longer protracted. 
The question came up for admitting the candidate to 
ordination. The records of the church had, in the 
mean time, been produced, and found to be satisfactory. 
Several members testified that, to the best of their 
knowledge and belief, the brother was a member in 
good standing, and it was resolved unanimously to pro- 
ceed with the ordination. It seemed to be taken for 
granted that the act of the council was merely a matter 
of form. This is, I presume, very much like a large 
portion of the ordinations among us, in many parts of 
this country. I ought, perhaps, to add, that I was not 
a member of the council, but being present, was politely 
invited to a seat. 

My brethren, we hear frequent complaint of a dete- 
rioration of the ministry ; that our young ministers are 
not as grave, devout, and as well acquainted with the 
Scriptures as formerly. I ask at whose door shall the 
blame be laid. If we make the licensing and ordaining 
of ministers a mere matter of form ; if the churches 
turn this duty over to the Committees of the Education 
Societies, and the Education Societies neglect it be- 
cause it is the duty of the churches ; and if councils 
meet merely to record what has been theoretically done, 
but practically left undone by both churches and Edu- 
cation Societies, what is to become of the ministry ? In 
whatever business we are engaged, if any thing is going 
wrong, it is always wise to ask first of all, What part 



120 SUGGESTIONS IN REFERENCE 

of the blame rests upon ourselves ? Whatever de- 
ficiencies there are in the ministry, it is in the power of 
the churches to correct, and the power exists nowhere 
else on earth. If we agree to admit every one who 
chooses into the. ministry, why should we turn about 
and complain that every one who chooses is admitted ? 
We must all begin at home, if we would see the evils 
of which we complain corrected. 

Here, as I have had occasion so often to observe, we 
have been led astray by following the example of other 
denominations. We believe that a man is moved by 
the Holy Ghost to enter the ministry, and that when he 
is thus moved, the mind of the Spirit is made manifest 
to him and to his brethren. A great part of our Pedo- 
baptist brethren consider the ministry merely as a pro- 
fession, which any church member of sufficient educa- 
tion may enter. The two views are entirely dissimilar. 
They have constructed their system of preparation for 
and entrance to the ministry on their own views. We, 
while holding radically dissimilar opinions, have, I had 
almost said, servilely adopted their system in almost all 
of its parts. Hence our doctrine and our practice are 
at variance with each other, and there is danger lest our 
practice undermine and subvert our doctrine altogether. 
Would it not be better to reverse this order, and con- 
form our practice to what we believe to be according to 
the mind of the Spirit ? 

In conclusion, let me ask, First, would it not be bet- 
ter for no church to grant a license, or semblance of a 
license, until they have taken all reasonable means to 
ascertain that the applicant was designed by the Master 
to be a preacher of the gospel ? 



TO ADMITTING MINISTERS. 121 

2. Is it not incumbent on a council, in a correspond- 
ing manner, to satisfy themselves that the candidate 
possesses the qualifications required in the New Testa- 
ment for the office of a pastor or an evangelist ? 

3. Ought ordinations ever to be held on the day of 
the meeting of the council ? 

4. Should not the council, besides fully examining 
the candidate, hear him preach themselves, at least so 
often that they may be able to form a judgment con- 
cerning his qualifications for the work ? 

5. Would it not be well to render ordinations and 
meetings of councils, seasons of solemn and united prayer 
for the blessing of God on the candidate and the church? 

This, it is said, will take much time. I have, how- 
ever, found that the very shortest time in ivhich it is 
possible to do any tiling, is just so much time as is 
necessary to do it well. 



XXI. 

THE POINTS IN WHICH WE DIFFER FROM OTHER SECTS IMPORTANT. — 
THE MANNER IN WHICH WE HATE ESCAPED THE ERRORS INTO WHICH 
OTHERS HAVE FALLEN. 

I have, on several occasions, alluded to the fact that 
we have suffered loss, as Baptists, by following the ex- 
amples of other denominations. It would almost seem 
to an observer that we were ashamed of our own pecu- 
liar sentiments, and took pleasure in testifying that be- 
tween us and other sects there were no real points of 
difference. I think the points of difference are import- 
ant, and that our whole history is, in the highest de- 

6 



122 POINTS OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 

gree, honorable to us "as a Christian sect. If any sect 
" has occasion to glory, we more/' If any man among 
us does not feel a manly pride in the sentiments which 
have distinguished us, and in the manner in which we 
have maintained them, there must exist something pe- 
culiar either in his head or his heart. 

The nature of the difference which distinguishes us 
from others, is on this wise : it is evident that all dis- 
ciples of Christ must hold essentially the same belief 
respecting the character of God, the obligations and 
character of man, and the way of salvation through the 
merits and atonement of the Eedeemer. But it is also 
evident that, holding these truths, men may adopt 
sentiments at practical variance with them. These 
sentiments, in process of time, may encroach upon and 
undermine the truth, so that it becomes more and more 
inoperative, until, at last, a church once spiritual and 
heavenly-minded becomes formal, ritual, and worldly. 
Of course we are to judge of any denomination not 
merely by what it believes, but also by the contradic- 
tory elements which it has associated with its belief, 
and which, in the long run, may cause it to swerve from 
the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus. This, we 
think, has been the misfortune of many of our Christian 
brethren, whose belief, according to their formularies, 
agrees quite closely with our own. 

We, on the other hand, think that, by the grace of 
God, we have been enabled to exclude from our belief 
many of those principles which have exerted a delete- 
rious influence on some of our brethren. In a w r ord, we 
hope that we have followed more closely in the steps of 
the Master, excluding the errors derived from the tra- 



BAPTISTS AND PEDOBAPTISTS. 123 

ditions of the fathers, the decisions of councils, and the 
enactments of state, and cleaving more firmly to the 
simple teachings of Christ and his apostles. We utter 
this in no spirit of arrogance or self-esteem, but in de- 
vout thankfulness to the Great Teacher, who, we be- 
lieve, has condescended to make known to us the truth 
more perfectly. 

But it will be said, How can you ascribe this more 
perfect knowledge of the word of God to yourselves ? 
You have not numbered among you profound philos- 
ophers, learned jDhilologists, acute logicians, or any of 
those gigantic intellects to whom we look up as the 
lights of the advancing ages. I answer, we have ar- 
rived at a clearer knowledge of divine truth, for the 
very reason that we have had no such guides to follow. 
Our fathers were, for the most part, plain, unlearned 
men. Having nowhere else to look, they looked up in 
humility to the Holy Spirit to teach them the meaning 
of the word of God. They had no learned authorities 
to lead them astray. They mingled in no aristocratic 
circles, whose overwhelming public sentiment might 
crush the first buddings of earnest and honest inquiry. 
As little children they took up the Bible, supposing it 
to mean just what it said, and willing to practice what- 
ever it taught. Thus they arrived at truth which es- 
caped the notice of the learned and the intellectually 
mighty. 

This is just what we might have expected. The 
New Testament was given as a revelation, not to the 
learned or the philosophically wise, but to every one 
born of woman. In it, God speaks to every individual 
of our race, as much as though that individual was the 



124 INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 

only being whom it addressed. Such a communicatlo< 
must evidently be made as plain and simple as langm 
could make it. In the New Testament, Infinite V" . 
dom has put forth its power to render the truth by 
which we must be saved easy to be understood. Such 
being the nature of the revelation, it is manifest that 
the best of all interpreters must be a humble and child- 
like disposition. The mind which is most thoroughly 
purified from every desire to conform the word of God 
to its preconceived opinions or biases, will be, of all 
others, the most likely to discover the truth which the 
Spirit intended to convey. Such is clearly the teaching 
of our Saviour on this subject. "I thank thee, 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast 
hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and 
hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for 
so it seemed good in thy sight/' I hope I have all due 
respect for learning, and especially for philological learn- 
ing. I trust I am not wanting in reverence for the wise 
and good of our own and of preceding ages. But I would 
ask, in that age of robust scholars, which of them had 
so deep and thorough an understanding of the mind of 
the Spirit in the New Testament as John Bunyan ? 
Shut up for twelve years in Bedford jail for the testi- 
mony of Jesus, his soul wrung with anguish by the 
tears of his starving wife and helpless babes, with no 
book but the Bible, a ray of light from the throne of 
God shone down on the sacred oracles, as he looked 
upon them, and revealed to him mysteries which the 
learned could not see, and which he has unfolded to the 
admiring gaze of all the coming ages. Take another 
case of a different character. Neander was learned in 



CONCESSIONS OF PEDOBAPTISTS. 125 

'^lulosophy, and in the history of the church, beyond 
y man of this age ; perhaps of any age. Take up 
his Commentary on John's First Epistle, the best 
of his works, of this character, with which I am ac- 
quainted. The excellency of this exposition is not at 
all owing to his marvelous learning, but to the child- 
like and loving temper which places him in so delight- 
ful harmony of spirit with the beloved apostle. If such 
be the law of the divine dispensation, it is not remark- 
able that the truth which was hidden from the wise and 
prudent has been revealed unto babes. And that this 
nas been so, would seem to be evident, from the fact 
that the sentiments which we have maintained for gen- 
erations, amid obloquy and contempt, are now admitted 
to be truths by the profoundest thinkers and the most 
learned Christian philosophers of the present age ; by 
men of the logical acumen of a Whately, and the 
philological and historical learning of a Bunsen and a 
Neander. 



XXII. 

HEREDITARY MEMBERSHIP AT VARIANCE WITH THE IDEA OF THE SPIRIT- 
UALITY OF THE CHURCH. — TENDENCY OF INFANT BAPTISM TO ESTAB- 
LISH HEREDITARY MEMBERSHIP. 

In my last paper I stated, in general, the reasons 
why a Baptist should be thankful to God for the past 
history of his denomination. It may be expected that 
I should present the case more in detail. I trust I am 
prepared to do so, and will illustrate my meaning by 
examples. 



126 HEREDITARY MEMBERSHIP 

In common with other evangelical denominations, we 
hold the doctrines of the depravity of man, the necessity 
of piety to church membership, and the necessity of 
regeneration, in order to render a man fit for the king- 
dom of God in heaven, or the church of Christ on earth. 
That is, we believe that the heart of man is estranged 
entirely from Grod, and is, therefore, in its natural state, 
incapable of holy affections, or of any act which fulfills 
the requirements of the law ; that the church of Christ 
is made up, not of those who are members by profession, 
but only of those who are changed in their affections, 
who love God with a filial temper, and submit them- 
selves in all things to the precepts and example of 
Christ, relying wholly on his merits for salvation. This 
change of heart is called, in the Scriptures, regenera- 
tion, and hence our belief is, that the church of Christ 
is made up wholly of regenerated persons. To the 
truth of these doctrines we have always borne testi- 
mony, and we have always intended to reject every 
practice and ordinance at variance with them. On 
these doctrines rests the superstructure of a spiritual 
church, of that church whose members are a a royal 
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people/' Suffer 
them, for any cause, to be obscured or undermined, and 
the dividing line between the church and the world is 
removed, and what was once a church of Christ in 
reality, becomes such only in name. I do not say that 
such will be the result within a single generation, but 
such is the tendency, and as surely as things follow their 
tendencies, they must sooner or later arrive at this ter- 
mination. 

For instance, suppose a church of Christ, holding 



OPPOSED TO SPIRITUALITY. 127 

the doctrines I have referred to above, also admits the 
practice of infant baptism. It is granted that there is 
no precept commanding, or example sanctioning this 
rite in the New Testament. It must, therefore, if a 
duty, be such in consequence of some other truth which 
necessitates the obligation to perform it. What, then, 
are the doctrines on which this obligation rests ? Is it 
the covenant with Abraham ? But all the children of 
Abraham, and the servants born in his house, were 
members of the patriarchal church. Why, then, should 
they not be members also of the Christian church, if it 
be formed on the same model ? Or, is the ground of 
infant baptism the rite of circumcision, under the 
Mosaic law ? Every male, by this rite, and every 
female without it, became a member of the Hebrew 
church, entitled to eat the Passover, and enjoy all the 
immunities belonging to the theocratic commonwealth. 
If this be our model, why should not corresponding 
privileges be accorded to the children baptized under 
the New Testament dispensation ? Here the door is at 
once opened to hereditary membership. The practice 
and the principles of Christians holding these beliefs are 
at variance, and, in such cases, it commonly happens 
that the practice encroaches on the principle. This 
occurred in the time of President Edwards. In the 
first place, the children of those who were not church 
members were admitted to baptism. Then persons 
who had been baptized, and were of moral life, who 
professed a desire to be converted, were admitted to the 
church. And thus it came to pass that, at one period, 
every respectable householder of the town was expected 
to be a member of the church. Thus, at the same 



128 EXPERIENCE OF THE QUAKERS. 

time, in the Keformed Dutch churches in this country, 
Mrs. Grant tells us that every young man, at the age 
of twenty-one, was married and joined the church, as a 
matter of course. In the Established Church of En- 
land, confirmation, by which a person is admitted to 
communion, is expected of every one on arriving at a 
suitable age. In the Lutheran churches the custom is 
universal. Thus the doctrine of the spirituality of the 
church is, in the end, subverted by the doctrine of 
hereditary membership, introduced by the principle on 
which infant baptism is supported. 

A striking illustration of the result of the admission 
of the doctrine of hereditary membership is seen in the 
history of the Friends, or Quakers. They had arrived 
at remarkably clear ideas of the religion of the New 
Testament, and of the obligations which it imposed. 
They, however, rejected ordinances altogether, observ- 
ing that they had become merely a matter of form. 
Yet they adopted the principle of hereditary member- 
ship. In a few generations, the societies of these disci- 
ples, who, at the first, proclaimed the truth of the 
spirituality of the church, were filled with hereditary 
members destitute of the grace of God. Then ensued 
a division, by which the formal and the spiritual were 
separated from each other. But the spiritual, adhering 
to the doctrine of hereditary membership, were soon 
again overwhelmed by merely worldly professors. Other 
divisions ensued. Thus, in spite of the purity and 
beauty of their original principles, they have been con- 
tinually diminishing ; and, it is to be feared, will before 
long cease to be a distinct denomination of Christians. 
We can not but believe that a high honor has been 



BAPTISM DOES NOT REGENERATE. 129 

conferred on us by the Master, in that we have been 
taught to bear testimony at all times, against what we 
believe to be an error so subversive of the doctrine of 
the spirituality of the church of Christ. 

But take the other grounds on which the baptism of 
infants is enforced. It is said by some that baptism 
purifies the child from original sin. If it be thus puri- 
fied, and its nature made holy, why should it not at 
once be admitted to a holy church ? Or, is the doctrine 
of baptismal regeneration entertained, and is it said 
before baptism that " none can enter into the kingdom 
of God, except he be regenerated and born anew ;" and 
after baptism, " thanks are rendered to God that he has 
been pleased to regenerate this infant with his Holy 
Spirit, to receive him for his own child by adoption, and 
incorporate him into his holy church," why should he 
not be admitted to all the privileges of the church of 
Christ ? But it is practically found that no moral 
change follows this ordinance, and hence the church is 
filled with worldly men, and the doctrine of the spiritu- 
ality of the kingdom of Christ is virtually ignored. 

Or, is it said, that setting aside all these views, we 
found the obligation of infant baptism on the traditions 
of the church, and its practice in the latter part of the 
second, and the beginning of the third centuries ? We 
then concede the principle, that the acts of men of that 
period had power to bind the conscience, and we are 
obliged to receive as truth whatever they taught, and 
to follow their example in whatever they put in prac- 
tice. Here, then, we abandon Protestantism, and adopt 
almost all the errors of the church of Eome. 

Agaiast these errors, as we conceive them, and the 

6* 



130 CONSISTENCY OF BAPTIST VIEWS. 

principles on which they are founded, we have had the 
honor of ever bearing our earnest and decided testimony. 



XXIII. 

OTHER TRUTHS TO WHICH BAPTISTS HA YE BORNE TESTIMONY. — THE SPIR- 
ITUALITY OF THE CHURCH OP CHRIST. — THE RIGHT OP PRIYATE JUDG- 
MENT. — THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS OUR RULE OP 
FAITH AND PRACTICE. — THE SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH FROM THE 
STATE. 

In my last paper I took occasion to observe that 
while the Baptists, with other evangelical denomina- 
tions, held the doctrine of the exclusive spirituality of 
the church of Christ, to them belonged the honor of 
holding this fundamental truth in its purity and sim- 
plicity, and of rejecting every principle and practice 
at variance with it. I also alluded to the fact that 
infant baptism can not be maintained without involving 
some belief opposed to this fundamental article of vital 
Christianity. We may at various times have become 
lax in our discipline, and have failed to carry out in 
practice the principles which we believe. In such cases, 
all we need is to seek out the old paths and walk there- 
in, to act, in a word, according to our* established be- 
lief, and " we are ourselves again." On the contrary, 
those who hold to practices founded on beliefs at vari- 
ance with this doctrine, can not be thus rectified. Their 
principles are contradictory, and to carry them all out 
to their legitimate results, must lead either to inextric- 
able confusion, or else to the subversion of some funda- 
mental doctrine of the gospel. 



PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS. 131 

But this is not the only tenet by which our denom- 
ination has been always distinguished. 

1. As a natural and inspired consequence of the doc- 
trine of the spirituality of the church, we have ever 
held to that of the universal priesthood of believers. 
We have always proclaimed that every child of God has 
the right, in his own person, of drawing near to God 
through the intercession of the one only Mediator and 
High Priest. Hence we reject all notions of the neces- 
sity of human mediators, and with it, all belief in the 
holiness of a priesthood, and in general of an ecclesias- 
tical caste. While we believe that men are to be set 
apart for the duties of the ministry in whom we see the 
evidence of ministerial gifts, yet, that it is the church 
itself — by which I mean not the clergy, but the whole 
body of Christians — which sets them apart ; and that 
when thus appointed to this work, they are, by this act, 
rendered no better or holier than their brethren. They 
are not thus made lords over God's heritage, but serv- 
ants of the church, appointed to minister in spiritual 
things. They have no authority, either individually or 
collectively, to legislate for their brethren, but are, in 
all respects, just as any other believers, subject to the 
law of Christ. This, in a country like our own, where 
the press is free and the church can not wield the arm 
of the state, may seem a matter of secondary moment. 
But let any one cast his eyes over the past history of 
Christianity, and observe the universal tendency of 
teachers of religion to constituto themselves into a 
priesthood, to assert dominion over the conscience, and 
to use the power which they have usurped for their own 
advantage, and to the extinction of piety, and he will, I 



132 RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 

think, come to a very different conclusion. No more 
fatal error has, in all ages, dogged the footsteps of the 
church of Christ, than the belief in the official holiness 
of the teacher of religion, and the necessity of a human 
mediator, in some sort, to appear on our behalf before 
God. From this belief have been developed those 
various forms of ecclesiastical hierarchy, which now, 
with their appalling weight, press down the masses of 
Europe, and hold them bound in the fetters of spiritual 
ignorance and sin. 

Another truth which has always been inscribed on our 
banner is, the absolute right of private judgment in all 
matters of religion. We have always believed that the 
New Testament was not given by God to a priesthood, 
to be by them diluted, compounded, and adulterated, 
and then retailed by the pennyworth to the people ; 
but, on the contrary, that the whole revelation in its 
totality, in all its abundance of blessing, with all its 
solemn warnings, and its exceeding great and precious 
promises, is a communication from Gocl to every indi- 
vidual of the human race. It is given to the minister 
in no higher, or better, or different sense, than it is 
given to every one who reads it. Every one to- whom 
it comes is bound to study it for himself, and govern 
his life by it. The wisdom of Omniscience has tasked 
itself to render this communication plain, so that he 
that runs may read, and that a wayfaring man, though 
a fool, need not err therein. The Holy Spirit has, 
moreover, been sent to assist every one who will, with 
an humble and devout heart, seek to understand it. 
With such a revelation, and such spiritual aid, every 
man is required to determine for himself what is the 



THE NEW TESTAMENT OUR STANDARD. 133 

will of God. Seeking to know his duty in this manner, 
he will not fail to discern it. He has, therefore, no 
excuse for disobedience. He can not plead before God 
that he could not know his will. He can not excuse 
himself before his Judge on the ground that his minis- 
ters deceived him. The revelation was made to the 
man himself, and the means were provided for his 
understanding of it. " Every one of us must give 
account for himself unto God." Such are the views 
which we have always entertained. 

Allied to this is another like unto it. As I have 
before remarked, we have always held to the perfect 
sufficiency of the Scriptures to teach us in all matters 
pertaining to religion. We, moreover, believe that the 
New Testament, the word spoken by the Son of God 
from heaven, and by the apostles whom he himself 
inspired, was given not to one nation, but to the whole 
human race for all coming time, and that by this word 
we are to decide upon the obligatoriness of every part 
of the older revelation. It is, therefore, in this sense, 
our only rule of faith and practice. To every precept 
of it we bow implicitly as God's last, best, and final 
revelation of his will to mankind. We judge the 
Fathers, as they are called, by the New Testament. 
We judge tradition and the rites and usages of men by 
the same law. We appeal "to the Word and the 
testimony, and if they speak not according to this word, 
it is because there is no light in them." Hence we are 
delivered from the yoke of antiquity, tradition, and 
ecclesiastical usurpation, and rejoice in the liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free. 

We hear much at present, which indicates the clis- 



134 INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHUKCH. 

satisfaction of honest and able men with the Christian 
church as it now exists in Europe, and to some extent 
in this country. It is surely not without foundation. 
We hear of various projects for a reformation of Christi- 
anity. None of these projects can, however, reach the 
evil. It will never be reached, and the world will never 
be reformed, until Christians prune off all the beliefs* 
and usages which have been ingrafted on the church, as 
it was left by the apostles, and in simplicity and truth 
adopt for their only and sufficient rule, the New Testa- 
ment, as it was committed to them by our Lord and 
Saviour. 

Another article of our belief, and the last that I will 
mention, is that the church of Christ is distinct from 
every other association of men, and is wholly and abso- 
lutely independent of the civil power. The authority 
we plead for this belief is found in the reply of Peter 
and John to the Jewish Sanhedrim : " Whether it be 
right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more 
than unto God, judge ye, for we can not but speak the 
things which we have seen and heard." We accord- 
ingly have ever believed that the state has no author- 
ity to legislate in matters pertaining to the conscience. 
When man violates the rights of man, the state may 
interfere, and prevent or punish the wrong. But, in 
matters which concern our relations to God, the state 
has no jurisdiction. It has no right to take cognizance 
of our duties to God. Hence it is guilty of wrong, if it 
prohibit or annoy any form of religion, if it favor one 
more than another, if it restrict the exercise of any 
form of devotion, either public or private, or in any 
manner whatever interfere in the matter of religious 



LIBERTY." 135 

belief or practice. Such was the view taken of this 
subject by Eoger Williams, and hence, when he estab- 
lished a commonwealth, its fundamental principle was 
perfect freedom in religious concernments ; or, as he so 
well designated it, " soul liberty." No man of his 
age had so clear conceptions of the rights of conscience 
as the founder of Rhode Island, and no one had ever 
carried them so honestly to their legitimate conclusions. 
I go further : no one has yet been able either to take 
from or add to the principles of religious liberty which 
he so simply and powerfully set forth. They stand as 
imperishable monuments to his fame, like the obelisks 
of Luxor, on which the chiseling of every figure is now 
just as sharply defined as when, three thousand years 
since, they were left by the hand of their designer. 

These sentiments we have held, as I have said, 
unalloyed by any opinions or practices at variance with 
them. Hence it is evident that we must, on various 
occasions, have differed in practice from those who, 
though agreeing with us in the main, have adopted 
practices and usages derived from other sources than 
the Scriptures. It is to our honor that we have borne 
testimony to these great truths through evil and 
through good report, amid obloquy, scorn, contumely, 
and persecution even unto death. 

That the Protestant leaders, at the time of the 
Eeformation, did not perceive the evil and the wrong 
of the alliance between the Church and the State, is 
one of the most inscrutable of the hidden things of the 
Almighty. They rejected many of the errors of Roman- 
ism, but retained this, which gave to them their power 
over the nations. They claimed for themselves the 



L86 0HAEA0T D B <> f T □ B P D Bl T a M 

ri"lif, of |,nv:il' |iid"ni<!iL hill, :i,<! ii'ion fi.M 1,1 1 cy obiaihw] 

the power, they denied It to those who with themselves 
bad been fellow-sufferers for conscience 1 sake. Hence 
their anxiety everywhere to gain the adherence to their 
sentiments of Electors, Princes, Oounts, Barons, and 
civil rulers of every rani anc^ description, Ami benoe, 
as '" various oountries, Protestants of different names 
came Into power, Baptists suffered from them all in 
tolerance and persecution. Nor was this persecution 
a in.'i.u.' i of ephemera] passion, Et has been continued 
even to the present day In most of the oountries ©£ 
Europe The sufferings of our brethren under the 
bouse of Stuart can not be read without a shudder, 
Even at the present day, though they are favored with 
gracioui toltration ) yet the unrepealed Laws of England, 
[f put into execution, would sadly interfere with the 
acknowledged rights of conscience, in Germany, our 
brother Onckeu bas suffered months of imprisonment 
fur preaching Christ, and the members of our churches 
arc now subjected to punishment by the civil magis 
fcrate for not bringing I beir children to the Lutheran 
priest for bapl ism, 

In our own country, under the Puritans, the case was 
no better. The Puritans were noble men, The world 
owes them a debt which can never be oanoeled, l 
would not detract from the bonor which they deserve. 
I respect a man who will suffer the loss of all I hings 
rather than submit to injustioe, and confess himself to 
be a slave, The Puritans were ready to die, rather 
than bow their oonsoiences to the will of man. But 
they sought for Liberty of oonsoience only for thei/Melim* 
They foiled to g< ncralize their principles, and yield to 



SENTIMENTS OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 137 

others what they claimed as their own inalienable birth- 
right. Hence persecution was soon as rife on this side 
of the Atlantic as on the other. Every one knows the 
treatment received at their hands by Eoger Williams. 
Several of our brethren from Ehode Island were fined 
and whipped for preaching the gospel at Lynn. And 
this spirit has not been allayed until within the memory 
of men now living. I have myself conversed with men 
who, in two of the New England States, have suffered 
the loss of goods and even imprisonment, because they 
would not pay taxes for the support of Congregational- 
ism, or, as it was then called, " the standing order." 

Here, then, is the peculiar glory of the Baptists. 
While they have suffered persecution at the hands of 
almost all the dominant sects that emerged from the 
Eeformation, their garments have never been defiled by 
any violation of the rights of conscience. What Eoger 
Williams claimed for himself, he as freely granted to 
others. He tells us : "I desire not that liberty to my- 
self which 1 would not freely and impartially weigh out 
to all the consciences of the world beside/' " All these 
consciences, yea, the very consciences of the Papists, 
Jews, etc., ought freely and impartially to be j>ermitted 
their several worships, their ministers of worships, and 
what way of maintaining them they freely choose/' 
And this, be it remembered, was said, and a govern- 
ment was established in conformity to it, at a time 
when, out of the little colony of Ehode Island and 
Providence Plantations, there was not a foot of the 
habitable earth where a Baptist could, without moles- 
tation, worship God according to the dictates of his own 
conscience. And at a later day, when there was not a 



138 IMPORTANCE OF THE PRINCIPLES 

colony in America in which, the charter of a Baptist 
college could have been obtained, Brown University was 
incorporated. True to their principles, our fathers in- 
serted a provision in the charter of this institution, by 
which the various sects in Khode Island; Baptists, Epis- 
copalians, Congregationalists and Quakers, in propor- 
tion to their then population, should forever constitute 
the government of the college. Such has ever been the 
constitution of this seat of learning. 

Of the unspeakable importance of the principles to 
which I have thus alluded, there can now be no contro- 
versy. The doctrines of the spirituality of the church, 
the right of private judgment, the perfect sufficiency of 
the Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice, and the 
absolute separation of Church and State, are admitted 
to be the articles by which the church of Christ must 
either stand or fall. The truths which Koger Williams 
first exemplified in his own little colony, are now the 
glory of this great republic ; and they are at this mo- 
ment agitating the millions of every nation of Europe. 
They must ere long make the circuit of the earth. And 
these other doctrines are now disturbing the repose of 
ritual and formal Christianity everywhere, and the 
churches can never " shake themselves from the dust, 
and put on their beautiful garments," until they are 
universally adopted. 

The Baptists may then lay claim, to say the least, to 
as high moral distinction as can be awarded to any sect 
in Christendom. They have borne testimony to the 
most important doctrines of revelation, in their unadul- 
terated purity and simplicity. From each sect in turn, 
they have, for bearing this testimony, suffered scorn, 



MAINTAINED BY BAPTISTS. 139 

contumely, reproach, and persecution. When they 
have obtained the power to persecute in turn, they used 
that power only to return good for evil, by granting to 
their persecutors every right which they claimed for 
themselves. When any sect can lay claim to higher or 
more honorable distinction, we will bow before them, 
and cheerfully yield them Christian precedence. 

Such being the facts known to all the world, have we 
any reason to be ashamed of our fathers ? When the 
very principles for which they suffered are now acknowl- 
edged to lie at the foundation, not only of pure Chris- 
tianity, but of all civil and religious liberty, shall we 
hide our light under a bushel, and blush to bear testi- 
mony to eternal truth ? After having so long stood in 
the vanguard of that noble host who have contended 
for apostolic Christianity and the inalienable rights of 
conscience, now that the victory is half achieved, and 
our principles are arousing the nations, shall we lay 
down our arms, furl our banners, and retire ingloriously 
from the combat ? I know not wiiat may be your 
answer, but I know what would have been the answer 
of Kos;er Williams. 



XXIV. 

APPROXIMATION OF OTHER SECTS TO THE PRINCIPLES HELD BY BAPTISTS. 
— THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE CHURCH. — THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE NEW- 
TESTAMENT AS OUR RULE OF FAITH. — LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. 

In my last number, I referred to some of the princi- 
ples always held by the Baptists-, and for our testimony 
to which, we had suffered persecution from almost all 



140 VIEWS OF PEDOBAPTISTS 

of the dominant sects in Christendom. I also stated 
the fact, that when the power had been in our hands 
we had never abused it, but advocated in its widest ex- 
tent, soul liberty; we had always accorded to our 
brethren — nay, to all men of what belief soever — the 
same privileges which we have ever claimed for our- 
selves. We acknowledge with thankfulness the grace 
that was thus bestowed on our fathers. We consider it 
an honor to walk in their footsteps. They have done 
nothing for which we should blush, and much in which 
we may glory. We stand in need of no patronage. We 
ask the loan of no old and worn-out garments to hide 
their mantle which has fallen upon us. Without arro- 
gance we may take our place in the front rank of those 
who have exemplified and suffered for the truth as it is 
in Jesus. 

A correspondent of Tlie Examiner, in Illinois, has 
requested me to exhibit the relative positions of the 
Baptists and Pedobaptists, and the reciprocal influence 
which they have exerted upon each other. The subject 
is important, and this is, perhaps, the proper place in 
which to consider it. I will, therefore, in compliance with 
the request of my brother, offer a few suggestions which 
have occurred to me since the reading of his communi- 
cation. In matters of minor detail I may sometimes 
err, for I have not at hand the means of verifying all 
my opinions. As to " the general scope and tenor/' as 
the old ministers used to have it, I think my views 
may be relied on. I shall offer them without much 
attempt at arrangement, as they may present them- 
selves to me on brief reflection. 

I remark, in the first place, that in many of the most 



UNDERGOING MODIFICATION. 141 

essential points of Christian belief, our brethren of other 
denominations have, within the last fifty years approx- 
imated more nearly to the views w r hich we have always 
entertained. For instance, the doctrine of the spiritual- 
ity of the church of Christ, that is, that every member 
of the church of Christ must be " regenerated" or "re- 
newed in the spirit of his mind," is much more distinctly 
understood, and more firmly believed, than it was half a 
century ago. 

This is very apparent in Great Britain, and it w^ould 
be so to a much greater extent, were it not for the con- 
nection betw r een the church and the state. The laws 
of the realm oblige a minister of the establishment to 
admit to the ordinances of the church, every British 
subject who has been baptized in infancy, and who is 
not of publicly immoral life. This is, however, felt by 
a daily increasing number to be an intolerable grievance. 
It is not defended as right, but mourned over as a 
necessity imposed by law, for which there is no relief. 
The better portion of the evangelical clergy, at the 
present day, hold forth the doctrine of the necessity of 
regeneration with as much plainness and power as any 
preachers living. There are daily issued from the press 
volumes of sermons on the most vital doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, which in the days of Toplady and Bomaine 
would have subjected their authors to unmingled and 
almost universal scorn. These volumes are read and 
appreciated by thousands in the establishment, who, 
though they do not cooperate with other denomina- 
tions, are laboring and praying for a reformation in 
their own. Such men were the Thorntons, Wilberforce, 
and the saints who, within the present century, taber- 



142 EFFECT PRODUCED BY THE 

nacled on Clapham Common. I do not, however, sup- 
pose that this change in the religious character of 
Great Britain is in any appreciable degree to be ascribed 
to the testimony of Baptists. It was owing, no doubt, 
mainly to the rise of Whitfield and Wesley, Scott and 
Simeon, and some other excellent men within the pale 
of the establishment. 

In our own country the change has also been mani- 
fest. The Puritans held that every voter, or freeman, 
as he was called, must be a member of the church. 
The result was, as might have been anticipated, every 
voter, and especially every candidate for office, became 
a church member. President Edwards's sermons on 
Justification, and his treatise on the Affections created 
a great sensation in his time, because they insisted on 
qualifications for admission to the church which were 
at variance with the common belief of New England. 
But few of the leading ministers in our large towns 
would admit Whitfield into their pulpits. At the 
present day, Edwards is the standard author among all 
evangelical Congregationalists, and he would now be a 
rare man who did not number Whitfield among the 
most wonderful pulpit orators that any age has pro- 
duced. Contemporary with Edw r ards, and in the gen- 
eration preceding him, there were clergymen of decided 
talent, who were considered as belonging to the lights 
of their age. Who, however, now reads their sermons 
except the antiquarian ? Who quotes them as au- 
thority ? The inaccuracy and mistiness of their views 
on the subject to which we are now referring, have done 
much to consign them to oblivion, while the works of 
the great American metaphysician have steadily in- 



WRITINGS OF PRESIDENT EDWARDS. 143 

creased in the estimation of theologians, until, at tlie 
present day, if a clergyman has twenty religious books, 
you may be sure that one of them will be a volume of 
Edwards. 

The effect of Edwards's writings was deep and widely 
extended, though it failed to reach the mass of Congre- 
gationalists. A large portion still continued to hold 
the sentiments of the older divines. Hence, every 
church, in the course of time, was divided against it- 
self, a part holding to the great doctrines of spiritual 
religion, and the others, commonly the larger party, 
believing in an almost hereditary membership. At last, 
the great Unitarian disruption ensued ; the churches 
throughout Massachusetts were divided, the Orthodox 
party forming churches by themselves, and the others 
professing Unitarianism. The Orthodox boldly affirmed 
the spirituality of the church, and the necessity of 
regeneration ; and the others, merely changing their 
belief concerning the personal nature of the Deity, 
retained their former sentiments. The Orthodox Con- 
gregational church then shook herself from the dust. 
Eevivals were multiplied throughout New England, 
and the foundations were laid of those benevolent en- 
terprises which are now the glory of our country. 

In this change of sentiment in the churches of our 
New England brethren, the influence of the Baptists 
may be distinctly observed. Our preachers went every- 
where, and in barns, in school-houses, and in private 
dwellings, preached with simplicity and godly sincerity 
the great truths of spiritual religion. They were gen- 
erally opposed as interlopers, who were interfering with 
the privileges of the " standing order/' The more they 



144 REVIVAL IN BOSTON. 

were preached against, the greater numbers attended 
their ministry. In some cases, good men who at first 
opposed, were led subsequently to imitate them, and 
preaching more fervently the doctrines of the cross, 
their own churches were revived. In other cases, mem- 
bers of churches who attended a formal ministry were 
converted and formed a little band of earnest, prayerful 
men, by whom the surrounding mass was to a greater 
or less extent leavened. 

The city of Boston presents an illustration of this in- 
fluence which it is well to remember. Early in the 
present century, the great doctrines of grace had there 
been almost wholly supplanted by what may, for the 
sake of distinction, be denominated hereditary Chris- 
tianity. At this time a glorious revival commenced 
under the preaching of Dr. Baldwin, and extended to 
the neighboring church of Dr. Stillman. It continued 
for between one and two years. The meeting-houses 
of these excellent men were thronged, multitudes were 
converted, and among them many members of the Con- 
gregational churches. These men became, of course, 
dissatisfied with the ministry on which they had regu- 
larly attended, but as a kind Providence ordered it, 
they did not become Baptists. In a few years they 
united and formed Park-street church, which was, for a 
while, the only Orthodox Congregational church in 
Boston. To this beginning may be traced the present 
prosperous condition of Orthodox opinions in that city. 
In referring to these facts, I am only repeating what 
has often been minutely related to me by men who were 
themselves parties to all the transactions. The same 



DECLINE OF INFANT BAPTISM. 145 

influence, under other forms, has been exerted in many 
of the towns and villages of New England. 

The doctrine of the absolute sufficiency of the New 
Testament, as our only rule of faith and practice, has 
also been much more widely and definitely maintained 
than formerly. This has been, doubtless, a result of 
the greater mental independence of the age, though it 
may in part, also, be owing to the uniform testimony 
of Baptists on the subject. From whatever cause it 
has arisen, the fact must, I think, be apparent, that in 
all religious controversy, the parties (Puseyites except- 
ed) refer much more exclusively to the teachings of the 
New Testament than formerly. We hear much less 
about the fathers than we once did. It has been found 
that the opinions of the best of them were, in many re- 
spects, radically erroneous ; that many of them were 
weak and puerile in intellect; that they were, in fact, 
just like the men of this or any other age, and that 
their teachings are utterly valueless, only in so far as 
they are in harmony with the Scriptures. Men are be- 
ginning to find out that an opinion gains nothing, 
either in truth or power, by being buried for one or 
even two thousand years, and that like the opinions of 
our contemporaries, it is to be judged solely by its con- 
formity to the word of Grocl. 

From the combined action of these two beliefs, it has 
come to pass that the practice of infant baptism is 
growing into desuetude. It is now the universal com- 
plaint of our Congregational and Presbyterian brethren, 
that their members do not bring their children for bap- 
tism. This would naturally arise from the facts to 
which I have alluded. The more prominent our belief 

1 



146 LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. 

in the spirituality of the church, the greater must be 
our difficulty in reconciling it with infant baptism ; and 
the more decided the impression that nothing is bind- 
ing on the conscience which is not found in the Scrip- 
tures, the more readily would men doubt the authority 
of an ordinance for which the Bible furnishes neither 
precept nor example. 

The right of private judgment has been so generally 
advocated by Protestants, that it does not require any 
special notice. The doctrine of perfect liberty of con- 
science, and the entire separation of church from state 
may, however, deserve a passing remark. It is too well 
knowm that in no country of Europe is this doctrine 
practically acknowledged. In our own country its prog- 
ress was steady and irresistible, though it is only with- 
in a few years that its last vestiges have been erased 
from the soil of New England. It is strange to ob- 
serve how deeply the notion becomes engraved on the 
mind of a dominant sect that religion can not be sup- 
ported unless it be sustained by the civil arm. When 
this question was agitated in the Convention that 
formed the present Constitution of Massachusetts, as 
late, I think, as 1820, almost all the Orthodox clergy 
were in favor of the provision by which every citizen 
w r as obliged to support Congregationalism, unless he 
could produce a certificate that he paid taxes to some 
other sect. In the most distinguished seat of theologi- 
cal learning in New England, every professor but one 
favored this opinion. 

The effect of Baptist theory and practice in correct- 
ing the opinions of the public on this most important 
question, can not, I think, be doubted. They, in Vir- 



PROGRESS OF BAPTIST SENTIMENTS. 147 

ginia, in Massachusetts, in Connecticut, protested 
against all civil differences on account of religious 
belief, and boldly asserted that this was a subject 
which did not come under the jurisdiction of the mag- 
istrate. They have at last prevailed, and the principles 
of Eoger Williams now bear undisputed sway from the 
St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific. 

These are some of the points in which the progress 
of opinion, in other denominations, has tended to the 
beliefs which we have always held. In how far our pre- 
cept and practice has tended to this result, we are will- 
ing to leave to the judgment of others. If any one 
desires to see this whole subject treated with great full- 
ness of research, and with singular fairness and ability, 
I would refer him to Professor Curtis's work on the 
H Progress of Baptist Sentiments/' lately published by 
Gould & Lincoln, of Boston. 



XXV. 

POINTS IX WHICH WE HAVE^ ERRED BY IMITATION OF OTHERS. — CHURCH 

MUSIC. 

From several of the previous numbers it will be 
perceived that I believe the Baptists to hold a distinct 
position among other Protestant sects ; that they en- 
tertain sentiments, which, if carried into practice, must 
render them somewhat peculiar, and that they are per- 
fectly capable of establishing their own usages, and of 
adapting their modes of worship and rules of discipline 
to the principles which they believe. They need bor- 



148 CONFORMITY TO OTHER CHURCHES. 

row from no one. They have no occasion to hide their 
sentiments, or blush for the results to which they lead. 
Their very peculiarities are their titles to distinction, 
because they are founded on principles which are essen- 
tial to the permanent spirituality of the church of 
Christ. It must, therefore, be a great error to obscure 
the distinctness of our testimony, by adopting usages 
which spring from principles directly at variance with 
those which we have always cherished. 

In my last paper I referred to several important 
respects in which our brethren of other denominations 
have approximated more nearly to us. Whether we 
have had any agency in the production of these changes 
is a matter of inferior moment. We rejoice in the fact, 
as an indication of important progress in the whole 
body of Christian disciples. 

On the other hand, however, within the last fifty 
years, w r e have, in various particulars, conformed to 
our brethren of other denominations. Whether these 
changes have been for good or for evil, there may be a 
difference of opinion. In many cases it must, I think, 
be observed that we have fallen into practices by no 
means in harmony with the doctrines which we hold. 
Some of these I will here take occasion to state. How 
general the usages are, to which I will refer, I am un- 
able to say. From a somewhat singular disposition to 
adopt the practices of those around us, it must follow 
that we are, in various respects, not only inconsistent 
with our principles, but also at variance with each other. 
I shall mention only such as have either come under 
my own observation, or been stated to me as facts, 
by my brethren, in the course of ordinary conversation. 



SINGING AN ACT OF WORSHIP. 149 

One of our essential beliefs is that of the spirituality 
of the church, that is, that the church of Christ is 
composed exclusively of spiritual or regenerated per- 
sons. As God is a spirit, and those that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth, we have al- 
ways believed that the real worship of God was per- 
formed only by believers. To us, worship, either in 
public or private, is the offering up to God of holy and 
devout affections. Hence we believe that no one can be 
a minister of the sanctuary, unless he be a devout and 
regenerate man. Hence we believe that to sing the 
praises of God without really lifting up the heart 
to him, is in no sense Christian worship, and is, in 
fact, no acceptable service. Hence our belief always 
has been that singing is a part of worship which 
belongs, in a peculiar manner, to the disciples of 
the Saviour. In this service they, with one voice, 
utter the confessions of penitence, the triumphs of 
faith, the confidence of hope, and bow down together 
with one feeling of holy adoration. Hence our singing 
was a service of the church, in which others united 
with them only in so far as they could sympathize with 
them in the sentiments which they uttered. These are, 
if I mistake not, our beliefs on this subject, and to it 
our practice, until lately, conformed. A member of 
the church selected the tunes, led the singing, and the 
whole church, and the devout portion of the congre- 
gation, united with him in this part of religious wor- 
ship. Their design was to make melody in their hearts 
to the Lord. 

For these reasons, Baptists formerly were universally 
opposed to the introduction of musical instruments into 



150 FORMER PRACTICE OF BAPTISTS. 

the house of God. They asked, How can senseless 
things speak the praises of God ? In this, they may or 
may not have erred. I do not deny that something of 
this sort may be useful to harmonize the voices of a 
congregation. I leave the decision of this question to 
the judgment of others, yet I can not but remark, in 
passing, that I have rarely met a Christian person who 
did not prefer the singing in a vestry-room below, 
where nothing was heard but the voices of the congre- 
gation, to the music of the choir, aided by the organ in 
the meeting-house above. Hence the singing in Bap- 
tist churches was formerly what is now denominated 
congregational. We had neither choirs nor organs. 
Nothing but the voices of worshipers wa«s heard in 
hymning the praises of God, and in this service every 
devout worshiper was expected to unite. 

I do not pretend that in this singing there was any 
artistic excellence. This is never needed in popular 
music, or that music which is intended to move a 
multitude of people. All national airs are simple, and 
they strike upon those chords which vibrate equally 
in the bosom of the common man and the amateur. 
When you hear a thousand Englishmen unite in the 
chorus of u Eule Britannia/' or as many Americans join 
in singing "Hail Columbia/' you forget every thing 
about chords and discords, but you are deeply moved 
by the common feeling, and can hardly refrain from 
leaping and shouting from deep emotion. So in re- 
ligious music. The tunes employed were perfectly 
adapted to religious sentiment, and blended the whole 
audience in one consciousness of solemn worship. To 



PKOFESSIONAL SINGING. 151 

use the language of Burns — surely a competent au- 
thority — 

" They chant their artless notes in simple guise, 
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim : 
Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling notes arise, 
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name ; 
Or noble Elgin fans the heavenward flame, 
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays. 
Compared with these, Italian trills are tame ; 
The tickled ears no heartfelt raptures raise, 
No unison have they with our Creator's praise." 

But a change has come over us. The Episcopal church 
always have approved of organs, and the music of 
choirs. The Congregationalists imitated the Episco- 
palians, and we, of course, imitate the Congregational- 
ists. We have organs in all our city churches at the 
North, and they are now deemed essential in our small 
towns and villages, and even in the country. The 
organ requires an organist. The organist requires a 
leader and several other professional singers to con- 
stitute an appropriate choir. This involves a heavy 
expense. These singers have a professional character 
at stake. They must perform in such a manner as to 
promote their own reputation. They select their own 
music — music in which the congregation can not unite. 
The congregation listens in silence to a mere musical 
performance, precisely as the audience at a concert or 
an opera. The performers are not unfrequently the 
very persons who amuse the theater on the evenings 
of the week, and the church of God on the Sahbath. 
I have known cases in which they had so little of the 
common respect for religion, that they have left the 
house of God as soon as their performance was ended. 



152 LOVE OF IMITATION. 

I know of a case in which the leader of a choir had con- 
ducted this part of what is intended to he the worship 
of G-od for several years, but who, during this whole 
period, as he confessed on his death-bed, had never 
once heard a sermon. We believe in spirituality of 
worship. We believe that Grod requires us to worship 
him in spirit and in truth. In how far such a service 
corresponds with our principles, let every Christian 
judge. 

This great change has come over us somewhat grad- 
ually. We were partly overcome by the declamation 
of men who professed great knowledge of music, and 
who ridiculed what they were pleased to call our want 
of taste. The strongest argument was, however, ad- 
dressed to our love of imitation. It was said, other 
denominations employ professional musicians, and we 
must do it also, or we shall be behind the times, and 
lose our congregations. Pious men and women doubted. 
They were not convinced, but they distrusted their own 
judgments, and were unwilling to oppose any thing 
which seemed to promise an advantage to the cause of 
Christ. They have, therefore, borne it all in silence, 
and rejoice that there is one place left, the humble 
vestry, in which they can unite together in singing with 
one voice the praises of their Redeemer. 

I hope, however, that a reaction in this matter has 
commenced. Men of piety have begun to feel that it is 
wicked to substitute a mere musical diversion for the 
solemn worship of God. Men of correct taste, at least, 
acknowledge that congregational singing, and solemn 
and devout music, are alone appropriate to the service 
of the sanctuary. Whenever a return to the old cus- 



CONGREGATIONAL SINGING. 153 

toms has been tried, it has met with unexpected suc- 
cess. May the reform be universal throughout our 
Baptist churches. 



XXVI. 

CHANGE IX OPINION RESPECTING- CHURCH MUSIC. — CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 

In my last paper ; I endeavored to show that we have 
erred by imitating the examples of others in the matter 
of church music. I alluded, also, to the fact that the 
best writers on this subject are now beginning to advo- 
cate the very principles which we, too thoughtlessly, 
discarded. The highest authorities on sacred music 
now admit that the singing of the house of God should 
be congregational, and forsaking the "Italian trills" to 
use the words of Burns, are falling back on a style of 
music adapted to the utterance of devotion ; that is, 
they are reviving the very airs which were once scouted 
as old-fashioned. It is now granted by all reasonable 
men, that music may be good for one purpose and yet 
very bad for another ; that, for instance, an air may be 
very well suited to an opera or a march, very well 
adapted for a charge on the field of battle, and yet very 
ill adapted to the devotions of an assembly uniting in 
the worship of God. 

We hope that this return to a more correct taste will 
have its perfect work. In the mean time, it may be 
well for us to remember that a practice is not, of 
necessity, either wise or in good taste, because other 
denominations adopt it. And still more, we may learn 
from this experience that the sober sentiments of 



154 CHUKCH ARCHITECTURE. 

religious men are worth, something, even in determin- 
ing a matter of taste. After surrendering our own 
principles for the sake of imitation, we find thos<3 whom 
we have imitated coming round to the very principles 
which we had deserted. Would it not have been as 
well for us to have adhered steadfastly to what we 
believed to be right ? 

A similar mistake, from the same cause, may be 
observed, if I do not greatly mistake, on the subject of 
church architecture. 

Our fathers, it is well known, built very unsightly 
and inconvenient churches, in by-ways and hedges, fre- 
quently in the outskirts of towns, and in places difficult 
of access. It is very easy to smile at this, and to 
ridicule their want of taste, and their selection of such 
strange localities. But let us pause and ask, Was there 
no other reason for all this, except an ignorance of the 
beautiful, and a passion for discomfort ? Let it be 
remembered that the builders of these houses were poor 
men destitute of influence, a sect everywhere spoken 
against. In multitudes of cases, they were unable to 
purchase more eligible sites, or if they had offered the 
full value of a lot, it would not have been sold to them 
for the erection of a Baptist meeting-house. They 
preferred worship in a meeting-house inconveniently 
situated, to a worship of which they conscientiously 
disapproved. They had no agents to scour the country 
and raise funds with which to erect a "commanding 
edifice." They could not afford to pay architects for 
plans of building. They had not learned to run in 
debt for churches. They labored on their building with 
their own hands, and, in the result, though we may not 



DESIGN OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. 155 

take their buildings for our models, we may surely 
respect the manly independence which governed their 
construction. 

That we should imitate their models when we are 
able to do better, would be absurd. But in avoiding 
this, we have, by following other examples, verged very 
far toward the opposite error, and thus come in con- 
flict with our own established principles. 

For instance, we have no belief in holy places, or 
places in which God may especially be acceptably wor- 
shiped. We do not profess to build a shrine, which, 
standing in a holy place, shall address the eye, and 
overcome us by its magnificence. We have no priest- 
hood who wait upon the altar, and offer up, in our be- 
half, our sacrifices to God. Our view on this subject is 
summed up in few words. We meet for worship, re- 
lying simply on the promise of Christ, " Wherever two 
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I 
in the midst of them!' We assemble to offer spiritual 
sacrifice. We meet to hear the word of God explained 
and brought home to our consciences and our hearts, 
and to bring under the sound of the gospel as many as 
we are able. Christ came to preach the gospel to the 
poor, and to the end of time, the evidence of the truth 
of his religion is, that u to the poor the gospel is 
preached." Hence we need a neat, convenient audience- 
room, well ventilated, well warmed, and also perfectly 
adapted to the wants of both speaker and hearer. We 
want this to be provided at as small expense as possible, 
for two reasons : first, we wish to bring the gospel within 
the reach of the poor, and of those of moderate means ; 
and. secondly, we need a great many such hoiises, be- 



156 GOTHIC STYLE INAPPROPRIATE. 

cause, if we are faithful to Christ, we expect an abund- 
ant increase. 

I regret, however, to say, that in the building of 
meeting-houses, we have acted at variance with all 
these principles. In this matter, we have followed the 
example of our Episcopalian brethren. At the Ref- 
ormation, they entered into the possession of the Cath- 
olic cathedrals and churches of the middle ages, and of 
course adopted this style of architecture. It is pecu- 
liarly unfitted for the purpose of an audience room. 
Who would think of erecting a Gothic building for a 
court-house, a legislative hall, a lecture-room, or for 
any purpose (except a church), when the object was to 
enable a large number of persons to hear a speaker. 
The Gothic is an enormously expensive style, and 
must, from its costliness, exclude from the sanctuary 
all but the rich. It may be endured where a denom- 
ination is small in numbers, and abundant in wealth, 
but for a denomination made up mainly of the middling 
classes, and the poor (according to the apostolic model), 
nothing could be more inappropriate. 

In spite of all this, however, that style is coming into 
vogue among us. In our cities we have our Gothic 
temples, instead of Baptist meeting-houses. The fash- 
ion is spreading from the cities to the towns and the 
country, and our brethren are everywhere beginning to 
rejoice in naves, and transepts, and chancels, and altars, 
and oriel windows, and stained glass, shedding abroad, 
as they tell us, " a dim religious light." I have lately 
seen a Baptist meeting-house, the windows of which 
were emblazoned with a strange variety of mystical 
symbols that must have amused the children by their 



UNIFORM STYLE DESIRABLE. 157 

grotesqueness, and sorely puzzled any plain man like 
myself, not deeply learned in the researches of the Ec- 
clesiological Society 

Now in all this, t seems to me that we underrate 
ourselves, and do injustice to our principles. We are 
sacrificing our principles to architects, as in the former 
case, we sacrificed them to musicians. We are follow- 
ing examples at which the sound common sense of 
good men everywhere is beginning to revolt. We are 
certainly able to know what we want in a meeting- 
house. We are able to devise, or to cause to be de- 
devised for us, some chaste, simple, pleasing, and well 
proportioned form, which, at a very moderate expense, 
shall furnish us with all that can be desired in a Chris- 
tian place of worship. We should show more respect 
for ourselves, by carrying out our principles to their 
practical result, than by imitating examples emanating 
from principles which we have ever repudiated. If we 
could all unite upon some plain, neat, convenient and 
economical model for a meeting-house, which might 
be used in city and in country, for large houses and for 
small, so that every one would know a Baptist meet- 
ing-house as soon as he saw it, we might build two 
churches where we now build one, and attract to the 
worship of God thousands and tens of thousands whom 
the present prices of pews and pew-rent exclude from 
any place in the sanctuary. Can any reason be assigned 
why we should sacrifice these advantages for the sake of 
imitating the gorgeous structures of the Catholic church, 
with which are associated bigotry, persecution unto 
death, and the most soul-destroying perversion of the 
doctrines of the cross ? 



158 PLAN FOR ATTAINING UNIFORMITY. 

We have an architect,* one of our own brethren, at 
the head of his profession in this country, who could 
not more effectually serve the cause of Christ, than by 
publishing a set of drawings and specifications, by the 
aid of which we might all be enabled to construct 
church edifices on the principles which I have suggested. 
Such a consecration of his eminent abilities to the ser- 
vice of his brethren, would confer the most important 
benefit that architecture has ever rendered to the cause 
of Christianity. Architecture has thus far shown its 
power in diminishing the number of worshipers ; by 
this means it would indefinitely increase it. We want 
a model of a Baptist meeting-house which, in future, 
we all may adopt ; so that we may have convenient, 
economical, and pleasing houses of worship, and a 

GREAT MANY OF THEM. 



XXVII. 

SAEBATH SERVICES. — POSTURE IN PRAYER. — READING NOTICES. — FORMULA 
IN BAPTISM. — SERVICES AT WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS. 

In my last paper I endeavored to show that we, from 
our love of imitation, had violated good taste, and com- 
promised our principles in the matter of church archi- 
tecture. We certainly are as able to determine what 
we want, as others are to determine it for us. We are 
as competent to select a style of architecture suited to 
our wants, as others are to select it for us. Let us then 
have respect for ourselves, and carry our princijoles into 
practice. 

* T. U. Walter, Esq., of -"Washington. 



POSTURE IN PRAYER. 159 

There are, besides these, several other minor particu- 
lars, in themselves of small moment, but which derive 
importance from the tendency which they cultivate. 
To some of these I will now allude. I shall here refer 
chiefly to our usages in conducting public worship. 

Our services in the house of God have suffered no 
change. They consist of (generally) a prayer of invoca- 
tion, singing, reading the Scriptures, prayer, singing, 
sermon, prayer, benediction. In some of our churches 
we sing twice, in others three times, and in others, the 
prayer at the opening of the service is omitted. 

According to our former custom, we stood in prayer, 
and sat in singing. Of late, we have adopted, in part, 
the practice of our Episcopalian brethren, by standing 
in singing, and sitting in prayer. I say in part, for the 
prayer-book directs the congregation to kneel during 
prayer, and their pews are generally adapted to this 
posture. If, however, they do not kneel, they bend 
reverently forward, and shutting out external objects, 
remain in this position to the close of the supplications. 
We do not profess to kneel, and the result is that our 
congregations sit, too commonly, gazing about irrev- 
erently, while the minister is offering up solemn petitions 
and adoration. In this respect we have, certainly, suf- 
fered loss. The solemnity of our service is diminished. 
The imitation is, at least, unsuccessful. To kneel in 
prayer is exceedingly appropriate, and I wish it could 
be universally adopted. To stand is expressive of rev- 
erence, when we approach into the presence of God. 
To sit listlessly gazing around, w T hen we profess to be 
offering up our supplications to God, can surely be just- 
ified neither by religion or good taste. I must, there- 



160 MODE OF WORSHIP. 

fore ; consider our change in this respect to be a failure. 
It would have been better had we remained as we were. 
Our love for imitation has overstepped itself ; and ex- 
cluded what was good, both in our own usage and that 
of others. 

Again, our notion of worship is simply this. We 
meet together on the Sabbath to offer up to God, each 
one for himself, the sacrifice of prayer and praise, and 
to cultivate holy affections by the reading and explana- 
tion of the word of Grod, and by applying its truth to 
our own souls. The preacher has a particular portion 
of the Scriptures to which he directs our attention. It 
is his design to unfold the mind of the Spirit, as it is 
made known in this part of revelation. To this end he 
selects his hymns, and the portion of Scripture which he 
reads, desiring, so far as possible, to have every part of 
the service aid in producing a definite moral effect. 
From beginning to end it is one act of worship, from 
which every thing irreverent, or even irrelevant, is to 
be, from the nature of the case, excluded. Nothing 
should divert the mind from the great moral object for 
which the assembly has convened. This idea was for- 
merly carried out among us. No notices were read, or 
announcements made, except they pertained to the 
religious meetings of the church, and lest these should 
distract the attention of the audience, they were given 
at the close of the last singing, just before the congrega- 
tion was dismissed. 

The Episcopalian theory of service is somewhat dif- 
ferent. With them, the reading of the liturgy is the 
essential portion of worship, and the sermon is merely 
an addition. Hence, they have adopted the practice of 



READING NOTICES. 161 

reading notices, publishing bans, etc., at the close of the 
liturgy, just before the commencement of the sermon. 
They, however, have been always careful of the nature 
of their announcements, and nothing secular, or discon- 
nected from the services of the church, is ever heard 
from their pulpits. 

In this respect we have fallen into a strange variety 
of practice. Some of our brethren imitate the Episco- 
palians, and read notices, etc., and take collections im- 
mediately before the sermon. Others choose for this 
purpose the time immediately following the prayer for 
the presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit. Others 
have no rule, but take sometimes one time, and some- 
times another. Nor is this all. We not unfrequently 
hear notices for all sorts of meetings, lectures, etc., read 
from the pulpit, breaking up the continuity of the wor- 
ship, and distracting the attention of an audience. I 
have known the worship of God interrupted to inform 
the congregation that some itinerant showman would 
admit Sabbath-school scholars to visit his panorama, on 
a certain day, at half-price, A multitude of cases of 
this sort will, I doubt not, occur to the recollection of 
most of my readers. 

Here again, by our facility of imitation, we have 
acted at variance with our principles, and introduced a 
variety of practice leading to disorder. Nor is this all. 
We have, as it seems to me, detracted from the solem- 
nity of the house of God, and materially affected for 
the worse the character of our service. The great idea 
of worship is in danger of passing away, through our 
various and changeful innovations. We desire to im- 
press a congregation with the idea that they come up 



162 FORMULA OF BAPTISM. 

to the sanctuary to converse with God — that they are in 
the immediate presence of Christ. How can they be- 
lieve us, when we are ever ready to interrupt our ser- 
vice in the most solemn moments, to publish notices, to 
take collections, or perform any miscellaneous business 
in itself alien from the idea of worship. Suppose we 
were visiting at the house of a friend, and were uniting 
with him in family devotion. How strangely would it 
strike us, if after reading the Scriptures, before he en- 
gaged in prayer, he gave to his household their various 
directions for the labors of the day. It would be still 
more strange, if he gave as a reason for his practice, that 
they were there all assembled, and that his directions 
would be better remembered, if he gave them in the 
midst of his devotional exercises. 

I ask, then, what have we gained by the change in 
this respect ? Would it not have been better had we 
adhered to the old usage ? Would it not be better 
now to return to it ? Would not the solemnity of our 
service be increased, by allowing nothing to be read 
from the pulpit which could interfere with the solemni- 
ty of worship, and that the necessary announcements 
be made after the last singing, or after the whole wor- 
ship was closed ? 

Other minor divergences from our common usages 
may deserve a passing notice. For instance, our usual 
formula of baptism is simply, "I baptize thee," etc. 
Some of our brethren adopt the Episcopalian form, pre- 
fixing the Christian name of the candidate, John, 
James, Elizabeth, etc. If our object is to designate 
the individual, we should give the whole name, for 
merely the Christian name designates no one. If it 



MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL SERVICES. 163 

designates nothing, I see no reason for adopting it, ex- 
cept that of following the example of another sect, who 
always use this mode of baptizing children. In fact, 
the common belief is, that it is this act which gives the 
child its name. 

Our principles lead us to entire simplicity in every 
form of religious service. We naturally shrink from 
every thing ritual which has not been commanded, even 
in indifferent things, because we wish to bear testimony 
against all human additions to the precepts of the New 
Testament. Hence in the performance of the marriage 
ceremony, and in funeral services, we have always avoid- 
ed every thing but simply religious service. Notwith- 
standing this, however, I learn that some of our breth- 
ren are introducing the ceremony of giving a ring in 
marriage, and that others at funerals are in the habit 
of using a large part of the Episcopal service, and even 
some of the ceremonies of that denomination. How 
extensively these changes have been adopted, I am un- 
able to affirm, but I think I do not err in saying that 
cases of this kind have occurred, and I think the tend- 
ency is at present decidedly in this direction. 

I know it will be said, that in these remarks I am in- 
terfering with the Baptist doctrine of the independence 
of ministers. I reply, I did not know that the i?ide- 
pendence of ministers was ever a Baptist doctrine, 
though it is the doctrine of some other sects. Independ- 
ence of churches is a Baptist doctrine, and this I think 
would teach us that no minister has any right to intro- 
duce any usage not common to us, without the direction, 
or at least the consent of the church of which he is the 
pastor. These two ideas are very dissimilar, and I regret 



164 QUESTIONS PBOPOSED. 

to perceive that they are in danger of being confounded. 
The distinction is of great moment, and is worthy of 
serious consideration. 

If a church sees fit to forsake our own usages and 
adopt those of other sects, I do not doubt the right, bu J 
I may certainly be allowed to question the expediency. 

1. I ask, Are not our Baptist usages as good as any 
other ? I ask again, as they are illustrative of our own 
essential principles, are they not for us better than any 
other ? 

2. Does it not show more self-respect to continue a 
usage common to us and to our brethren, than to for- 
sake them, and borrow usages from the other sects with 
whom we chance to associate ? Are we so chameleon- 
like, that we must of necessity take the tinge of every 
object with which we come in contact ? 

3. If we adopt this principle of conformity to others, 
what must be the result ? Our children will be led to 
believe that not only our usages, but the principles 
which govern them, are matters of no consequence ; 
that we sink them as far as we are able, and are only 
waiting for an opportunity to forsake them altogether. 
If we put them in the road leading to other communions, 
what wonder is it if they follow it to the end ? 

I know it may be said that these are all trifles, wholly 
unworthy of public remark. To this I reply, If they 
are such trifles, why should we, for the sake of trifles, 
destroy the visible unity of our own people ? I reply 
again, whatever affects the unity of our churches is no 
trifle. These little things indicate tendencies, and great 
things as well as small, follow their tendencies. Small 
aberrations lead to wide deviations. The greatest mass 



WHO CONSTITUTE THE CHURCH. 165 

becomes powerless when broken into fragments and pul- 
verized into atoms. A cockade is a very little thing, 
but a cockade has changed the destinies of empires. 



XXVIII. 

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE CONGREGATION. — GRADUAL 
CHANGE IN THIS RESPECT. — UNFORTUNATE POSITION OF A MINISTER. 

In my last paper, I alluded to various cases in which, 
by thoughtless imitation of others, we had been led into 
usage, neither for our advantage nor in conformity with 
our principles. I turn now to some other practices, in 
which, from the same cause, we have diverged from our 
former beliefs. 

The first point which I shall consider, is the relation 
subsisting between the church and the congregation. 

What our legitimate views on this subject are, may 
be easily inferred from our belief in the spirituality of 
the church. We, as I have said, understand the church 
to be a company of spiritual persons, who, from being- 
dead in trespasses and sins, are made alive in Christ 
Jesus. Hence, upon such persons devolves the whole 
responsibility of directing the affairs of the church, that 
is, in fact, of directing their own affairs in all that con- 
cerns their religious association. They admit to their 
fellowship such, and such only, as they believe to be 
regenerate ; they establish under Christ their own rules 
of order and discipline ; they call their own pastor; they 
provide for his support ; they erect their own house of 
worship, and assume the whole management of their 
own ecclesiastical affairs, both spiritual and secular. If 



166 RELATION OF THE CHURCH 

others choose to worship with them, they welcome them 
with all gladness. If others are willing to contribute to 
the support of the gospel, they receive it with all thank- 
fulness. We rejoice to see them in the sanctuary, lis- 
tening to the proclamation of the gospel. We will 
put ourselves to any inconvenience for the sake of ac- 
commodating them there. We will labor and pray for 
their salvation, but we will give them no authority to 
interfere with any thing which relates to the kingdom 
of Christ, until they themselves enter into it. Such are 
the views which harmonize with our principles. 

Nor in this is there any thing, as we suppose, either 
arrogant or unreasonable. We stand to the unregen- 
erate in the relation of spiritual advisers. If we are 
what we profess to be, we know better what is for their 
spiritual benefit than they do themselves. They so 
consider it. If they need advice or instruction respect- 
ing their soul's salvation, they do not go to one who is 
with them simply a member of the congregation, but to 
the clergyman, or, perhaps, quite as frequently, to some 
member of the church, to the most devout and godly 
man of their acquaintance. They thus admit that we 
have a knowledge of spiritual things of which they are 
destitute, and are thus capable of advising them in 
matters of which they confess themselves ignorant ; nay, 
they frequently and justly complain of us because we do 
not more earnestly and solemnly warn them of their 
danger, and point out to them the way of eternal life. 
Now the uniting with us for the support of worship 
neither alters these facts nor changes this relation. If 
we know better than they what is for their spiritual 
good, it is for their benefit that we should provide for 



TO THE CONGREGATION. 167 

them spiritual instruction. The case is in many re- 
spects analogous to that of professional advice. He who 
pays a physician, does not by any means acquire the 
right of directing his own medical treatment. The 
physician here must act simply for the recovery of the 
patient. He can not obey him to his injury. The pa- 
tient may, if he chooses, select another physician, or 
he may prescribe for himself ; but he may not control 
the treatment which his medical adviser conscientiously 
prescribes. 

These were favorite ideas with our older Baptists. 
Perhaps they even carried them to excess. They were 
frequently unwilling even to be incorporated by a legis- 
lative act, lest they should thus, in some manner, lose 
their Christian liberty. If they were incorporated, they 
preferred to be incorporated as a church, and not as a 
society. The church thus held and controlled whatever 
property might be appropriated to the purposes of wor- 
ship. In the calling and dismission of a pastor, they 
acknowledged no authority but their own ; considering 
every thing that belonged to the church of Christ to be 
a purely religious concern. These principles were, to 
the best of my knowledge, always conceded to them ; 
and on this basis our meeting-houses were formerly 
erected. They greatly feared committing themselves to 
any arrangement by which those who were not by pro- 
fession religious men, should acquire a control over 
religious things. 

In this respect, we were unlike most of the leading 
sects in New England. Some of these allow baptized 
pewholders to vote on all church questions, and admit- 
them as members of conventions, covocations, and 



168 CHURCH AND SOCIETY SYSTEM. 

other ecclesiastical bodies, thus merging the church and 
the congregation in the same society. Other sects make 
out of a company of worshipers two separate organiza- 
tions, called the "church" and the "society" The 
church consists, in this case ; of the communicants, of 
whom the pastor is the chairman ; the society consists 
of the pewholders, who form their own rules, elect their 
own chairman, and keep their own records. These two 
organizations have coordinate jurisdiction on most ques- 
tions affecting the interests of the whole. For instance, 
in the settlement of a pastor, the church makes out the 
call, but it is not considered valid unless it is concurred 
in by the society. The church, it is true, calls the min- 
ister, but the society votes the salary ; so that the so- 
ciety has always a negative on the acts of the church, 
and without their concurrence, the act of the church is 
of no value. When the members of the church form 
the large majority of the pewholders, so that the same 
persons act in these two capacities, this plan would 
work with entire harmony. If, however, it were other- 
wise, and a majority of the pewholders were merely 
members of the congregation, it is easy to see that the 
pastor might be chosen, in fact, by persons really not 
members of the church. 

In this respect we have followed the latter of these 
examples. When it was considered necessary to erect 
houses of worship at an expense far beyond the pecu- 
niary ability of the church, it seemed indispensable to 
follow the course adopted by our brethren of other de- 
nominations, and make larger concessions to the pew- 
holders. Hence, in New England, and in those States 
in w r hich New England opinions prevail, the company 



EFFECT N THE MINISTRY. 169 

of Baptist worshipers is divided into two organizations, 
in the manner to which I have just referred. The 
church calls the minister, the society concurs or not in 
the call, and by the power of voting the salary, deter- 
mines whether or not the call shall be accepted. The 
influence of the society has gradually increased among 
us with the increase in our expensiveness^ of worship. I 
have known a case in which the society called a clergy- 
man to ministerial service on their own motion, and 
sent their vote to the church for their concurrence. I 
am far from affirming that this arrangement is without 
its apparent advantages. By this means we are en- 
abled to build larger and more magnificent meeting- 
houses, and sustain a far more costly worship, at a 
much less expense to the members of the church ; but 
whether the spiritual benefits correspond may be a mat- 
ter of doubt. 

The position of the minister of the gospel is by this 
arrangement manifestly changed. The gospel recog- 
nizes in him but one character, that of pastor of the 
church of Christ. As our assemblies are at present con- 
stituted, he is also a lecturer on religion to the congre- 
gation, who are supposed to have appointed him for 
this purpose, and who are, in fact, the persons responsi- 
ble for his support. These two parties, as I have said, 
may be the same persons, acting in different capacities. 
But suppose it not to be so. Suppose the church small 
and poor, and " the society" large and wealthy. Sup- 
pose, also, that the expenses of public worship are 
greater by far than the church is able to bear, and 
that, unless the house is filled and the pews all rented, 
the society will fall hopelessly in debt. This combina- 

8 



170 TEMPTATIONS TO 

tion of circumstances — by no means, I think, an un- 
usual one — places a minister of the gospel under 
temptations too great for ordinary human virtue. Sup- 
pose still further, that the preacher is an educated man, 
addicted to books and literature, and of cultivated taste ; 
that his church is composed, for the most part, of plain 
men and women, in moderate circumstances, and that 
the society numbers among its members many families 
of opulence, refinement, and social position. The lat- 
ter are well pleased to attend upon a religious service 
on the Sabbath ; they admire a classical style, an elo- 
quent delivery, and serious, though not too serious, re- 
flection. They are really attached to their clergyman 
as a well-educated, accomplished, and highly-esteemed 
friend. The echo of a " successful effort" comes back 
to him from a hundred tongues : 

" Praise from the shriveled lips of toothless, bald 
Decrepitude, and in the looks of lean 
And craving poverty, and in the bow 
Respectful of the smutched artificer, 
Is oft too welcome, and may much disturb 
The bias of the purpose. How much more, 
Poured forth by beauty, splendid and polite, 
In language soft as adulation breathes." 

Can it be expected that the " bias of a man's pur- 
pose" will remain undisturbed under such a pressure ? 
But to this let me add another circumstance. Suppose 
that the pulse of religion beats feebly in the heart of 
the church itself. Suppose that a portion of them also 
are wealthy, and that they indulge in the same forms 
of luxury, frequent the same amusements, and are as 
anxious to be known among the leaders of fashion as 



MINISTERIAL UNFAITHFULNESS. 171 

the members of the " society" who make no pretensions 
to religion. Suppose, still more, that the professors of 
religion are as greedy of gain, as tortuous in trade, as 
other men, and that in the eyes of the community many 
of them hold a place decidedly inferior to that of some 
of their fellow- worshipers who cherish no hope of salva- 
tion. Suppose the minister to know that if he urged 
sinners to be renewed in the spirit of their minds, it 
would at once awaken the response, " "We should be 
very sorry to be renewed after the model of those whom 
you set before us as examples." What condition on 
earth can be more trying than that of such a minister ? 
What shall lie do ? How shall he preach ? Are there 
any such congregations and ministers among us ? Do 
not such, facts as these explain the reason why we some- 
times fail to hear from orthodox pulpits the doctrines 
of human depravity, the certain condemnation of the 
wicked, the necessity of regeneration, its nature and 
evidences, and the broad moral distinctions, so fre- 
quently repeated in the Scriptures, between the charac- 
ters of the righteous and the wicked ? 



XXIX. 

PREACHING TO BUILD UP A SOCIETY. — VESTRY SERVICES. — CHURCH DIS- 
CIPLINE. — AMUSEMENTS. — HONESTY IN MERCANTILE DEALING. 

In my last paper I stated briefly some of the tempt- 
ations which beset the path of the minister of a 
fashionable congregation. What human virtue can be 
expected to resist such insidious and continued press- 



172 TRIALS OF A CITY MINISTER. 

ure ? We complain that ministers are not faithful, 
and yet we surround them with conditions that would 
render faithfulness almost a miracle. I hesitate not to 
say, that a man who would welcome the fagot or the 
scaffold rather than deny his Lord, might succumb 
under the moral trials of many a city pastorate. 

When I say succumb, I beg to be understood. I do 
not mean that a good man, under such circumstances, 
would deny the faith, or become vicious in character, or 
preach any thing which he did not believe to be true. 
It would, however, be strange if his life did not witness 
a ceaseless struggle between his conscience and his 
practice. He knows that if he should preach the gos- 
pel in its simplicity, and tell men their duty and their 
danger with all plainness, the congregation w r ould be 
amazed, and either he would, by the grace of God, 
change them, or they would very soon change their 
minister. He would generally resort to a middle course, 
and preach, not to convert souls, but to build up Ms 
society. He would preach religious truth, but preach it 
in so general a manner, unfolding the doctrine, but ap- 
plying it to no one, that the whole congregation would 
believe it, but scarcely an individual would ever turn it 
to any practical moral purpose. His sermons would be 
addressed, in reality, to neither saints nor sinners, but 
to some imaginary class of moral agents, belonging 
neither to the one class nor the other. No one is con- 
verted by his preaching ; in fact, it is not to be ex- 
pected that any one will be. The additions to the 
church are made from the Sabbath-school and the Bible- 
class, where a few men and women, unknown to the 
world, and, it may be, unknown to the leading members 



THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 173 

of the clmrch and society, in simplicity and godly sin- 
cerity prayerfully press home the claims of the gospel 
upon the minds of the young. So far as his Sabbath 
services are concerned, the minister sinks down into 
settled hopelessness, and consoles himself with reflec- 
tions upon the importance of the pulpit to the general 
condition of the community, its conservative influence 
in politics, its value in the support of our liberties, and 
in the preservation of our republican institutions. He 
believes that he is doing good in this way, and this 
seems all that he can expect to accomplish. 

But beset as is the pastor by these discouragements, 
there is yet one place toward which he looks with hope. 
It is the plain, humble vestry, where, on the evening 
of some week day, he meets his brethren and sisters, 
who are praying and waiting for the salvation of Israel. 
Here no organ distracts the attention, nor performs for 
the congregation the worship of God. Here no archi- 
tectural magnificence frowns clown upon the humble 
and poor disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. Hither, while 
their fellow Sabbath worshipers are preparing for the 
concert, the assembly, the opera, or the theater, the 
saints resort to hold communion with their Saviour. 
Here the minister of Christ can breathe freely. Here 
he can pour out his heart in supplications with which 
he knows that every hearer sympathizes. Here he can 
speak the language of Canaan, and he feels that every 
hearer understands it. Here, with his whole soul, in 
the exercise of a lively faith, he can urge men to re- 
pent and believe, for he knows that those still unregen- 
erate, who come within this circle, are inquiring what 
they must do to be saved. Here, then, is real worship. 



174 CHANGE IN DISCIPLINE. 

This is the real Sabbath of the soul. Here the piety 
of saints is fed with manna from above. Here the 
lamp of Christian piety is fed with the oil from the 
sanctuary. It is thus that religion is kept alive in our 
magnificent churches. Were it not for this, they would 
all sink, and be engulfed in formalism and worldliness. 
why could not the vestry be removed to the audience- 
room above ? 

There has been also, as might be supposed, a great 
change in our discipline, while these other changes 
have been in progress. Holding firmly to the doctrine 
of the spirituality of the church, our fathers conceived 
that there must, of necessity, be a vast difference be- 
tween them and the world. They knew that if they 
were true to their principles, they must, of necessity, be 
a peculiar people. They took it for granted that they 
would be out of sight of the gay, the thoughtless, and 
the pleasure-loving. They cultivated plainness of dress. 
The Methodists and the Baptists might once be known 
by the simplicity of their attire. Hence our brethren 
were never met with in places of public amusement. 
You would as soon have found a Baptist in jail as at a 
ball, an opera, or a theater. To be found in such a 
company would have incurred the censure of the 
church. They would have entered into no metaphys- 
ical disquisition on the question, How far a disciple of 
Christ may go in conformity to the world ? they would 
only have asked, How can a spiritual mind take delight 
in " the lusts of the eye, the lusts of the flesh, and the 
pride of life ?" 

In all the transactions of ordinary business, they were 
watchful over the character of each other. They were 



A CASE OF DISCIPLINE. 175 

not in haste to be rich, and hence they escaped many 
" foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in de- 
struction and perdition/' Public opinion, I think, had 
less weight with them than now, hence they did not 
dare to seek a morally doubtful advantage, because it 
was customary with men of the world. They might, 
like other men, be unfortunate in business, but I think 
it was considered the duty of the church, in such a case, 
to look into a brother's affairs, and ascertain for them- 
selves that he had been guilty of no dishonesty. I once 
knew a case of this kind. A most exemplary man, a 
deacon of a Baptist church, failed in business, in 
a time of extreme financial pressure. He did not act 
as an officer of the church, and I am not sure that he 
partook of the communion, until a committee had 
investigated his affairs, and the church was satisfied 
that his conduct had been unexceptionable. The 
purity and honor of his character were soon made 
manifest to the world. His estate paid every creditor, 
with interest, met all the expenses of insolvency, and 
left him a handsome amount as a remainder. A failure 
of this kind was no dishonor to the cause of Christ, 
but it is spoken of, even to this day, as a memorable 
example of Christian integrity. 

In these respects, there has a change come over us. 
I fear that in attendance upon places of amusement, 
and in participation in social luxury, our practice is 
different from that of our fathers. In the matter of 
mercantile integrity, I do not know that there is any 
thing now to distinguish us from others. The church 
discipline, which was formerly universal, could not now 
be carried into effect. The tide of worldliness, the love 



176 A LAX DISCIPLINE LOWERS 

of gain, and the ambition of expense, which has been, 
for some years, flowing 'over the Christian world, has 
overwhelmed us also. 

In how far, in these respects, we have suffered by fol- 
lowing the example of others, need not here be consid- 
ered. Whatever be the amount of our blameworthiness, 
it rests, after all, exclusively on ourselves. Nay, more, it 
is evident that in this matter, if we have sinned, we are 
exceedingly sinful. When a denomination does not hold 
distinctly and clearly the doctrine of the spirituality of 
the church, it is especially liable to the irruption of 
worldliness. Those who were admitted to communion 
for the sake of making them better, only make the 
others worse, and thus the standard of piety in a church 
is reduced. The w r orldly example of one professor of 
religion is taken as a rule for others who desire an ex- 
cuse for seeking pleasure rather than seeking God. 
Thus the infection spreads from member to member, 
from church to church, and from denomination to de- 
nomination, because there is no recognized and estab- 
lished principle to resist it. We, however, have no such 
excuse. It has pleased G-od to reveal to us clearly the 
doctrine of the spirituality of the church, and he has 
taught us to avoid all beliefs and rites at variance with 
it. On us there was devolved the momentous duty of 
exemplifying this doctrine, in all its moral beauty, to 
the whole Christian world. Had we been true to our 
Master and to our own principles, what blessings might 
we not have conferred upon the church of Christ ? 
The wave of worldliness that has been rising so fear- 
fully, would have beat harmlessly at our feet, and our 
example might have strengthened our brethren of 



THE STANDARD OF PIETY. 177 

other denominations to check its destructive progress. 
Is it yet too late ? May we not yet arise from the 
dust, and put on our beautiful garments ? Is it too 
much to hope that Grod will yet honor us as the har- 
bingers of an era of more elevated piety in the history 
of the church. Good men of all denominations are be- 
coming greatly alarmed at the present tendencies. The 
vast discrepancy between Christianity as it now ap- 
pears, and the Christianity taught and exemplified by 
Christ and his apostles, is mournfully apparent. Poets, 
satirists, and journalists, scoff at it, and jeer at it, and 
hold it up to stinging and universal ridicule. Mer- 
chants declare that they consider an account against a 
professor of religion worth no more than that against 
any other man. Ought not every denomination of 
Christians, then, to awake out of sleep, and does it not 
become us to be the first to set them the example ? 



XXX. 

INDEPENDENCE OP THE CHURCHES. — CAN A CHURCH PROPERLY BE REP- 
RESENTED ? 

Before closing my remarks on the dangers to which 
we are exposed from following the examples of other 
denominations, I desire . to offer a few remarks on our 
ecclesiastical organization. We are liable in this re- 
spect to swerve from our principles, and of this liability 
it is well to be aware. 

The Baptists have ever believed in the entire and 
absolute independence of the churches. By this, we 
mean that every church of Christ, that is, every com- 

8* 



178 OF THE INDEPENDENCE 

pany of believers united together according to the laws 
of Christ, is wholly independent of every other ; that 
every church is perfectly capable of self-government ; 
and that, therefore, no one acknowledges any higher 
authority, under Christ, than itself ; that with the 
church all ecclesiastical action commences, and with it 
it terminates, and hence, that the ecclesiastical relations 
proper, of every member, are limited to the church to 
which he belongs. If it be said that a member may 
thus be exposed to the tyranny of a majority, and suffer 
censure when it is undeserved, without hope of redress ; 
to this I reply, the principles of independence, carried 
consistently to their results, furnish a remedy for this 
form of injustice. A church owes courtesy to every 
other church, but is under no obligation to take part 
with it in wrong-doing. The injured person may, there- 
fore, apply to any other church for admission. It is 
perfectly competent for them to examine the case for 
themselves, and if, in their opinion, the member has 
been guilty of no wrong, they may rightfully receive 
him. In such a case, however, it would probably be 
the preferable course to call a council of disinterested 
brethren who might examine the facts, and give the 
aggrieved members, and the church with which they 
proposed to unite, the benefit of their advice. This 
seems to provide a sufficient remedy against ecclesias- 
tical tyranny, and this is the result to which the doctrine 
of the independence of the churches necessarily leads. 

The doctrine of the independence of the churches 
rests upon a few plain and well-established principles. 
Some of these I take to be the following : 

1. Eeligion is a matter which concerns exclusively 



OF THE CHUBCHES. 179 

the relations between an individual man and bis Maker. 
It teacbes us bow we may so serve God as to secure bis 
favor, botb bere and hereafter. 

2. The manner in which we may acceptably serve 
God must be made known to us by God himself. The 
moral history of man teaches us that we are wholly in- 
capable of determining this question. 

3. In the Xew Testament, God has therefore in mercy 
furnished us with a perfect rule of duty. From this 
source we may learn our obligations to God, to our 
fellow-men in general, and to our Christian brethren in 
particular. 

4. This revelation being a communication from God 
to every individual, every individual is under obligation 
to understand it for himself. Aid, sufficient to guide 
every candid inquirer, is promised to all who will ask 
for it. By the light thus obtained, eveiy man is under 
the highest conceivable obligations to govern his con- 
duct, though it. be in opposition to every created au- 
thority. 

5. Men who, by such an examination of the Xew 
Testament, arrive at the same conclusions respecting 
its requirements, unite together in churches for the sake 
of promoting holiness in each other, and subduing the 
world to obedience to Christ. In doing this, however, 
they neither assume on the one hand, nor concede on 
the other, any power of original legislation over each 
other. Christ is the head of the church in general, and 
of every individual church in particular. The members 
all profess obedience to his laws, and by his laws they 
submit, at all times, to be judged. Whatever the Xew 
Testament teaches, either by precept or through ex- 



180 OF THE REPRESENTATION 

ample ; the church may require of its members ; and 
the individual members may require of the church. 
"Whatever passes beyond this rule, must be left to the 
judgment and conscience of the individual, it being 
without the limit of church authority.^ 

6. Such being the nature of a Christian church, I do 
not see how it can possibly be represented. Eepresen- 
tation always supposes that there are certain rights, 
duties, obligations, etc., in which the individual agrees 
to be governed by the majority. The various con- 
stituencies unite in sending certain persons of their 
own number, who represent their sentiments in these 
respects, and they agree to obey such laws as these 
representatives, when assembled together, shall enact. 
Thus, in this country, we agree to submit to the 
decision of Congress all questions relating to peace 
and war, imports, currency, etc. There are, however, 
other questions, as for instance, those relating to the 
rights of conscience, which w r e have never submitted 
to their authority. Whatever laws they enact, there- 
fore, in respect to all matters which we have placed 
under their jurisdiction, we adopt as rules of our con- 
duct, unless they be in violation of our duties to God. 

7. Such being the nature of representation, I ask 
how can a church of Christ be represented ? The mat- 
ters which could be committed to representatives are 
clearly but two : First, those which Christ has not com- 
manded, but which are properly left to the decision of 
individual conscience ; and secondly, those which have 
been commanded by Christ or his apostles. Concerning 
the first class, these, not being commanded, but being 
left to the decision of individual conscience, are already 



OF THE CHURCH. 181 

without the jurisdiction of the church, and, of course, 
the church can commit jurisdiction concerning them to 
no representation. It can not transfer to another a 
power which by concession it does not possess. But 
take the other class of duties, or obligations, those 
commanded by Christ. Can it commit the com- 
mands of Christ to any human tribunal ? Can a 
church, or can churches commit the precepts of Jesus 
to a representation, thus acknowledging their power to 
add to, to abolish, or to modify what ' the Master has 
enacted ? Or again : can it concede to any representa- 
tion the right to interpret for us the precepts of Christ ? 
This would be to abolish the right of private judgment, 
and convert us into Komanists. Nor, lastly, can we 
commit the execution of these laws to representatives, 
since the power to enforce the laws of Christ rests with 
each church itself. 

It would seem, from these simple principles, impossi- 
ble that a church of Christ can be in any proper and 
legitimate sense represented. We have nothing to sub- 
mit to representatives. We have no representatives to 
whom any thing is to be submitted. I will go further, 
and add, that what can not be done properly and legiti- 
mately must not be done improperly and illegitimately. 
It is as truly a violation of the independence of the 
churches, and the right of private judgment,, when 
several hundred brethren meet in some public conven- 
tion, and manufacture public opinion, and adopt courses 
which their brethren are called upon to follow, on pain 
of the displeasure of the majority, as when they estab- 
lish a formal representation, to whose decisions all the 
constituency must submit. 



182 OBJECT OF THE CHURCH. 

These have always been favorite ideas with our bap- 
tist churches. In this we differ essentially from our 
Presbyterian brethren. With them, every church is 
represented formally, and legally, in its Presbytery, by 
which its acts may be reviewed and reversed. The 
Presbytery is, in like manner, represented in the Synod, 
and also in the court of final ecclesiastical appeal, the 
General Assembly. This form of church government, 
as it is called, appears well enough, if we look upon 
a church of Christ as a civil organization. g We, how- 
ever, take very different views of the theory of the 
church of Christ, and in practice, we have never seen 
any thing in the representative form to recommend it. 
If any of our Christian brethren like it, we are glad to 
have them adopt it. We, however, have ever looked 
with great disfavor upon any practice which, in the 
remotest degree, violates the great principle of the in- 
dependence of the churches. 

Jesus Christ left his church without any general 
organization. Throughout the New Testament we can 
discover not a trace of organization beyond the estab- 
lishment of individual churches. Their bond of union 
was sympathy with him through the indwelling of the 
Holy Spirit in each individual. Is it not probable that 
as he left it, so he intended that it should continue to 
the end of time ? The object of the church of Christ 
on earth is very simple : it is the conversion of souls. 
This object, it seems to me, can be accomplished with- 
out the use of the complicated, cumbrous, and fre- 
quently soul-destroying machinery, with which his dis- 
ciples have for so many ages been burdened. Under 
the old dispensation there was an established and formal 



vTTEMPTS AT REPRESENTATION, 183 

organization, and every thing respecting it was definitely 
prescribed, even to the minutest particular. As, in the 
New Testament, no trace of this kind can be discov- 
ered, is it not reasonable to suppose that nothing of 
this kind was intended, but that the Master chose that 
it should remain just as he left it ? Moses was com- 
manded, saying, " See that thou make all things 
according to the pattern showed thee in the mount/' 
As Jesus Christ has showed us no " pattern/' is it de- 
sirable for us to make one for ourselves ? 



XXXI. 

ATTEMPTS TO FORM A BAPTIST REPRESENTATION HAVE FAILED. — BAPTIST 
GENERAL CONVENTION. — MISSIONARY UNION. — NO ONE OF ALL OUR 
BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATIONS REPRESENT THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION. 

I have referred to the doctrine of the independence 
of the churches, and the grounds on which we suppose 
it to rest. It is a belief to which the vast majority of 
our brethren have adhered with a most commendable 
and consistent tenacity. 

Notwithstanding this, attempts have been made, at 
sundry times, among us, to establish some kind of in- 
formal representation. They have never met with 
favor, and have obtained influence among us only 
through ignorance of their real character. To some 
of these I will briefly allude. 

When State Conventions were first proposed, it was 
by many believed— and of these I freely confess myself 
to have been one — that through them we might estab- 
lish a general Baptist organization. If the churches 



184 THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION 

sent delegates to the Association, the Association sent 
delegates to the State Convention, and the State Con- 
vention sent delegates to the General Convention of the 
Baptists in the United States, or to the Triennial Con- 
vention then existing, it would seem that all this might 
easily have been accomplished. I now rejoice exceeding- 
ly that the whole plan failed, and that it failed through 
the sturdy common sense of the masses of our brethren. 
The churches were from the first unwilling to confer 
this power on the Associations. The Associations tooK 
very little interest in it, and frequently sent no delegates 
to the State Conventions. The churches did not greatly 
favor them, and hence they never seemed to take root 
naturally among us. They are now, in fact, merely 
Domestic Missionary Associations, and as such have 
been very useful. But I believe that their usefulness 
would be increased, and that they would associate them- 
selves more intimately with our churches, by adopting 
a name more strictly indicative of their character, and 
calling themselves what they are — Home Mission So- 
cieties of the States to which they belong. 

The Triennial Convention was really a representative 
assembly, composed, however, not of representatives of 
churches as such, but of representatives chosen by the 
contributors to Foreign Missions. These contributors 
were sometimes individuals, sometimes Mission Socie- 
ties, sometimes churches, sometimes Associations, and 
sometimes State Conventions. Any Baptist organiza- 
tion whatever, which contributed a given amount annu- 
ally to the funds of the Convention, had a right to send 
its representative. Hence it was a very common thing, 
at its meetings, to hear members tell about their con- 



A REPRESENTATIVE BODY. 185 

stituents. An attempt was made, pretty early in the 
history of this organization, to give it the control over all 
our benevolent efforts. It was proposed to merge in it 
our Education Societies, Tract Societies, Home Mission 
Societies, and our Foreign Mission Societies, so that one 
central Board should have the management of all our 
churches, so far as their efforts to extend the kingdom 
of Christ were concerned. After a protracted debate, 
this measure was negatived by so decided a majority 
that the attempt was never repeated, and this danger 
was averted. "We look back, at the present day, with 
astonishment that such an idea was ever entertained. 

Though the Triennial Convention was thus restricted 
to its appropriate object, the work of Foreign Missions, 
its representative character remained. It was, by the 
community at large, considered to be the grand meeting 
of the Baptist denomination in the United States, a 
sort of General Assembly, to which all our affairs were 
brought for decision. Hence, if for any cause it was 
deemed desirable to commit the whole Baptist member- 
ship to any course of action, this was considered the 
proper place in which to make the attempt. I well re- 
member that on one occasion, a series of resolutions was 
introduced, of which the only object was to express our 
approbation of General Jackson's measures for the re- 
moval of the Cherokees. Hence, though missions were 
the ostensible object for which we assembled, missions 
were frequently the last thing thought of. Propositions 
for amendments to the Constitution, of course, occupied 
a considerable part of the session. Then the attempts 
of brethren from the East or West, the North or the 
South, to procure an expression of the denomination in 



186 PEEVERSION OF THE OBJECT 

favor of this matter or that, totally unconnected with 
missions, must be disposed of. When any of these ex- 
citing questions were discussed, the house would be 
filled to overflowing ; but when nothing but missions 
was under consideration there was room enough, and 
to spare. A large part of the time of the meeting was 
thus wasted in angry altercation. Hence this attempt 
at representation, intended to unite us all as one denom- 
ination, proved the source of manifold alienation, and, 
I fear, injured the very cause of missions which it was 
its avowed object to promote. 

I shall not soon forget the remarks made by a beloved 
brother from Ohio, at one of the last meetings of the 
Triennial Convention which I ever attended. After the 
meeting had been for several days in session, he ob- 
tained an opportunity to address it, and spoke to the 
following effect : " My brethren, I have ever been deeply 
interested in the cause of missions, and once hoped that 
I might myself be permitted to labor in the foreign 
field. My health, however, failed, and the providence 
of God forbade me to prosecute my purpose. I have 
never before attended a meeting of the Convention, 
much as I have desired it. For some time I have 
denied myself many conveniences, that I might secure 
the means for making this journey. I expected here to 
meet the fathers and brethren of the Baptist denomin- 
ation, and hear from them much concerning the progress 
of the Kedeemer's kingdom, and the plans which were 
to be adopted for its further increase. In a word, I ex- 
pected to hear about missions, but we have been now 
in session for several days, and the subject of missions 
has hardly been introduced. I have thus far heard 



OF THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION. 187 

nothing but the contentions of brethren. There seems 
really less interest in missions here, among brethren 
who are considered leaders in the missionary enterprise, 
than in the forests of the West. Brethren, I shall re- 
turn home sad at heart." The words thrilled through 
the assembly, and there was not a man there who did 
not confess that every word was true, and that the re- 
proof was richly merited. 

Things had arrived at that point, that every member 
ivho loved the cause of missions, or even the peace of 
our Zion, looked forward to the meetings of the Con- 
vention with fear and apprehension. Our best men 
were becoming glad of an opportunity to be absent from 
its meetings. When the separation between the North 
and the South took place, every one saw that a totally 
different organization had become absolutely indispensa- 
ble. The Constitution of the present Missionary Union, 
which is formed on entirely different principles, was 
unanimously adopted. This was the end of the only 
representative organization ever attempted among us. 
The result showed it to be utterly alien from all our 
principles, and calculated to work nothing but division 
and dissension among us. 

The Constitution of the " Union" excluded all sem- 
blance of representation. It was originally composed 
entirely of life-members, who became such by the pay- 
ment of $100, though this feature has since been slightly 
modified. The life-members elect a Board, who hold 
office for three years, one third being elected every year. 
The Board elect an Executive Committee for the special 
management of the concerns of missions. Here, then, 
every man speaks for himself, and for himself alone. 



188 OUR PRESENT BENEVOLENT 



He can throw the blame of his actions on no constitu- 
ents, but must stand up and answer to the public for 
himself. This has been a great advantage, and has 
tended to save us from many a useless, angry, and par- 
tisan discussion. The membership is also much more 
permanent, and so much time is not occupied by breth- 
ren, who, for the first time, have attended a general 
missionary meeting, and are wholly ignorant of the 
subject of missions. 

Still it is ever to be borne in mind that the Mission- 
ary Union, together with the various Associations that 
frequently meet at the same place, and nearly at the 
same time, is no representation of the Baptist denomin- 
ation, that is, of the Baptist churches, which are in 
truth the denomination. This is so important a fact, 
that it deserves a word or two in explanation. 

In point of numbers, the members of our Societies, 
meeting at any one time, are a very inconsiderable 
fragment of the denomination. Or take the whole 
membership of these Societies together — and they are, 
in fact, generally the same persons over again — and 
they would amount not to a twentieth, probably not to 
a fiftieth, of our whole number. But whether many or 
few, they come not as representatives of churches, for 
the churches have never sent them nor commissioned 
them ; they come together on their own motion, merely 
as members of the Union, or of the Home Mission, or 
Bible, or any other Society. The limits of their action 
are fixed by the Constitution of the Society to which they 
belong. When they have cared for its interests, they 
have nothing further to do, and have no more right, at 
such a time, to act for the denomination, than they 



SOCIETIES NONREPRESENT ATI VE. 189 

would have, if by chance they happened, each one in 
the pursuit of his own business, to meet at the central 
terminus of several railroads. They are members of 
these Societies, and nothing more, and directly, or in- 
directly, to assume to be any thing else, is by just so 
much to violate the principle of the independence of the 
churches. 

But suppose, it may be said, that every member of a 
Baptist church was a member of these Societies for 
Christian benevolence, would not the delegations sent 
by the churches to the meetings of these Societies, 
represent the churches ? I reply, by no means. The 
constitution and laws of the church are found in the 
New Testament. What we find there enjoined, we 
may enforce, and nothing more. Much remains, how- 
ever, which the church may not enforce, but which is 
left to individual duty. What is thus done, though 
done by every member of the church, is not done by the 
church, and the church has no right to exercise any 
control over it ; nor have those who do it any right to 
enforce it upon the church. I will take the plain and 
obvious case of foreign missions. No church has any 
right to oblige any member to give to foreign missions, 
any more than to go upon a foreign mission. The same 
may be said of a Bible Society, a Home Mission, or any 
other Society. A church may demand of every member 
the consecration of himself and his property to Christ, 
and may very properly exclude him for covetousness, 
just as it would for lying, profanity, lewdness, or any 
other sin. But as to the manner in which the individual 
shall exercise his liberality, the church can not direct. 
He may give his money and his labor to missions, home 



190 LOVE TO THE SAVIOUR 

or foreign, or to the distribution of tracts or Bibles, or 
to the assistance and improvement of the poor in his 
own vicinity, and it is all out of their jurisdiction. This 
is done out of the church, on the individual's responsi- 
bility to his Master. Suppose individuals engaged in 
these various good designs unite together in advancing 
them, they form their own laws, adopt their own ar- 
rangements, but they are not the church, they can not 
control or represent the church, nor can the church rep- 
resent them, or control them, unless they violate the 
precepts of Jesus. 



XXXII. 

LOVE TO THE SAYIOUR THE BOND WHICH MUST UNITE BAPTISTS TO EACH 
OTHER. — ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED IN CONDUCTING; BENEVOLENT ASSO- 
CIATIONS. — THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF A CHURCH MUST NOT BE TRANS- 
CENDED. — INFANT DEDICATION. — CONCLUDING: REFLECTIONS. 

Those who agree with me in the suggestions which 
occupy some of my last numbers, will readily see that 
the representation of churches, in any legitimate sense, 
is at variance with the first principles to which we have 
always adhered, that all the attempts to establish any 
thing of this hind have been eminently unsuccessful, 
and that they have been, and ever must be, productive 
of dissension and strife, instead of unity and peace. 
The more steadfastly we hold to the independence of 
the churches, and abjure every thing in the form of a 
denominational corporation, the more truly shall we be 
united, and the greater will be our prosperity. If it be 
asked, What is there then to unite us ? I answer, 



THE BOND OF UNION. 191 

love to Christ and adherence to principle. When these 
fail, we shall sink with them. Destitute of these, we 
ought to sink. If we die, why should we not be buried ? 
If the piety and zeal of the Baptist churches become 
extinct, the denomination will be absorbed into other 
sects and be no more known. This is to me one of the 
strongest evidences that we are on the true foundation. 
A church organized after the manner of a civil com- 
monwealth may retain its form long after the last ves- 
tige of piety has vanished, and continue for ages an 
enemy to Christ and a persecutor of the saints. The 
soil of Christendom, at the present day, is covered with 
the festering carcasses of churches, from which the 
Spirit has for generations departed. The moral atmos- 
phere is rendered pestilential by their presence, and 
neither piety nor humanity can breathe it and survive. 

Let us, then, ever bear it in mind that the Baptist 
denomination, that is, the Baptist churches, is one 
thing, and the benevolent associations formed or sus- 
tained by individual Baptists are another and a very 
different thing. Individual members of our churches 
have a right to form such associations, not at variance 
with the precepts of the Master, as they choose. All 
who wish to unite in the promotion of such on object, 
of course join with them. This, however, imposes no 
obligation on those who are not like-minded. They are 
just as free to let it alone as to unite in it. They may 
be as good Baptists in letting it alone as in joining it. 
" A brother or sister is not under bondage in such 
cases/' We give and receive freely in such matters the 
right of private judgment. It pertains to the church 
to which I belong to see that I am not wanting in 



192 ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED IN 

Christian benevolence ; and to exclude me if need be for 
covetousness, but the direction which my benevolence 
shall take must be left to myself. 

And where such associations are formed, they have 
each one its appropriate office, whether it be foreign or 
domestic missions, the circulation of Bibles, or tracts, or 
any other good design. This object is exclusive. It 
may not properly be transcended or mingled with any 
other. No one, not of this Society, has any right to in- 
terfere with its management, nor has it a right to in- 
terfere in the management of any other Society. There 
are two ways in which this important rule may be vio- 
lated. 

In the first place, we may use one Society to advance 
the interests of another. For instance, I am a member 
of a Mission Society. I am bound in this relation to 
consider simply the interests of missions. My brother 
is a member of a Bible Society ; he is, in this relation, 
to consider simply the circulation of the Scriptures. 
But I am also a member of the Bible Society. I have 
no right to enter that Society and seek to make it sub- 
servient to the Mission Society, nor has any brother a 
right to render the Mission Society subservient to the 
Bible Society. I have no right to elect officers of the 
Bible Society who favor my missionary views, nor he 
to elect officers of the Mission Society who favor his 
Bible views. Neither has he a right to take measures 
in another Society for the purpose, as it would seem, of 
committing the denomination to the Society which he 
considers it his duty especially to favor. Let each stand 
separately on its own merits, and gain the favor of the 
wh51e, not by partisan management, but by good works. 



CONDUCTING BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. 193 

The latter course leads to harmony, independence, and 
mutual love ; the other to intrigue, dissension, tyranny, 
and disaffection. Unless these principles be observed, 
our general associations will prove a curse rather than a 
blessing, and a voluntary association which is found to 
be a curse, will soon cease to exist. 

Again, we may interfere with each other in a different 
manner. One Society may be engaged in a work which 
is especially blessed of G-od and finds general favor with, 
the brethren. Another Society, formed for a different 
purpose, finds less favor with the churches ; its object 
is not believed to be of vital importance ; its field of 
labor is, from necessity, circumscribed, and it spends so 
large a part of its collections in agencies, that it lan- 
guishes and is liable to perish. Such a Society may, for 
a time, be revived, by undertaking a part of the labor 
of the more fortunate associations, and thus, instead of 
doing the work for which it was constituted, do the 
work appropriate to an entirely different organization. 
Then we have two Societies with their separate rooms, 
officers, and agents, at a very large expense, doing the 
same work, each going through the churches making- 
collections for the same object, and neither succeeding 
but at the expense of the other. It is for this, among 
other reasons, that the business of agencies is so shock- 
ingly overdone among us. The very name of an agent 
is by no means a favorable introduction to any of our 
churches. The congregation is always small when it is 
known that an agent is to occupy the pulpit. A feel- 
ing so general cannot be wholly without foundation. If 
we wish our general benevolent associations to prosper, 
they must confine themselves to their legitimate and 

9 



194 THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER 

constitutional objects ; and if they can not stand on this 
foundation, they had better be abandoned. 

I have spoken above of the distinctive character of 
the church of Christ. On this subject let rne add a 
single word. I think we should be careful to bear this 
in mind in all our arrangements. For instance, I have 
known a church form itself into a Temperance Society, 
and oblige every member on entering it to take the 
Temperance pledge. Now, God forbid that I should 
say a word against temperance, but still, a church is not 
a Temperance Society, A church may very properly, 
nay, it must of necessity, require of every member that 
whether he eat or drink, he must do it to the glory of 
God. It may enforce the direct precepts of the New 
Testament, and the indirect precept of the apostle 
Paul, in respect to causing a brother to offend ; and it 
may inform every member that this is required of him, 
and will be enforced accordingly. Nay, further, if a 
brother has ever been liable to this sin, it may require 
of him specifically total abstinence on account of his 
peculiar temptation. Bat I think that it can go no far- 
ther. The difference here is important. In the one 
case, it is a promise of a moral duty made to man ; in 
the other, it is submission to the revealed will of God. 
The value of this difference must be evident to every one. 

So I have known churches to take the Sabbath-school 
under their care, as it is called, and constitute them- 
selves, in fact, a Sunday-school Society. I do not see 
how this can be, unless every member is required to 
teach in a Sabbath-school. No one, however, would be- 
lieve this to be correct. Under this view, the Sabbath- 
school scholars are sometimes called " children of the 



OF THE CHURCH. 195 

church/' I always supposed that the church had none 
but regenerate children ; for if she have unregenerate 
children of one age, why not of another ? Would it 
lot be more in accordance with our principles to con- 
sider the Sabbath-school an association of Christians 
miting for this purpose under their own laws, and sub- 
ject to their owtl arrangements ? 

These may seem matters of small moment. They 
may not be great in themselves, but they are of im- 
portance if w r e consider the principles which they in- 
volve. If brethren united in church fellowship have 
the right to take matters not strictly belonging to the 
church under their legislation, what is there that may 
not be taken under the cognizance of the church ? 
Where shall the line be drawn ? and when a member 
joins a Baptist church how shall he know to how many 
things, not commanded by Christ, he commits himself ? 
Many of the worst corruptions of the Catholic church 
were introduced by requiring as a universal duty, what 
was properly left to individual conscience. It may be 
very suitable for a burdened conscience to unbosom it- 
self to a minister or Christian friend before coming to 
the table of the Lord. Left precisely in this form, as 
a matter to be decided by the individual himself, noth- 
ing could be more innocent. Eequire it to be done as 
a command of Christ, and we have the practice of au- 
ricular confession, one of the most terrific engines ever 
devised by Satan for enslaving the conscience, and 
bringing the soul of man under the unlimited power of 
the priesthood. This is not fancy, but fact. It was 
thus that auricular confession was introduced into the 
Komish church. 



196 INFANT DEDICATION. 

A Welsh Baptist desires me to say a word on the 
subject of Infant Dedication. In complying with his 
request, I would remark, that I never before heard that 
such a practice obtained in the Principality. I see no 
allusion to it in Christmas Evans's Sermons, nor in any 
other Welsh writers with whom I am acquainted. In 
my youth, I knew several able and eminent Welsh Bap- 
tist ministers, such as John Williams, John Stevens, 
and others, but never did I hear from them a word of 
any such practice. They certainly never introduced it 
into this country. 

I never have heard of the practice of infant dedica- 
tion until within a few years. I learned, some time 
since, that some of our missionaries at the East were in 
the habit of holding a prayer-meeting shortly after the 
birth of a child, to ask for it the blessing of the Saviour, 
and in a special manner to consecrate it to God. It was 
purely a voluntary service, and was merely a meeting 
of the particular friends of the family for prayer for a 
particular object. The missionaries, however, found that 
it w r as liable to be mistaken, by the converts from hea- 
thenism, for an appointment of Christ, and they wisely, 
on their own motion, abandoned it. 

It is, I perceive, asserted that a practice of this sort 
is in use among some of the churches in Germany. Of 
this I know no more than I have seen in the news- 
papers. I never heard Mr. Oncken allude to it. 

The above exhausts my knowledge on the subject. 
To my Welsh brother I would, therefore, reply, " We 
have no such custom, neither the churches of God." 

In concluding this part of my subject, I would remark, 
that our position is, in one respect, remarkable. The 



SPIRITUAL DECAY. 197 

unexampled facilities for the acquisition of wealth have 
stimulated the love of gain and the passion of expense, 
beyond all former precedent. The love of sensual pleas- 
ure is sweeping away the barriers which once separated 
the church from the world, and drowning men in de- 
struction and perdition. The principles of men profess- 
ing godliness are exerting less and less effect on their 
practice. To arrest this progress of worldliness must be 
especially difficult in churches which, theoretically or 
practically, directly or indirectly, admit the doctrine of 
hereditary membership. We profess to have escaped 
this error. It becomes us, therefore, when the enemy is 
coming in like a flood, to lift up a standard against 
him. Let us, then, review our principles. Let us assure 
ourselves of their truth. Let us, at all hazards, carry 
them out into practice. By so doing, rather than by 
following the example of others, shall we please the 
Master, and confer the greatest benefit upon our breth- 
ren of other denominations. Devout men of all persua- 
sions are alarmed at the condition of religion through- 
out our country, and they would hail with joy the 
opening of a brighter day, from what quarter soever it 
might arise. 

Wherever the standard of the cross is erected, the 
sons of Grod, by whatever name they may be called, will 
gather around it. Let us arise and lift up that stand- 
ard, for this matter belongeth unto us. 

I would ask my brethren who have been allured from 
the simplicity that is in Christ, and have yielded them- 
selves to the maxims, the fashions, the luxury, and sen- 
suality of a world that perisheth, What fruit have ye 
in the things of which ye were once ashamed ? Is not 



198 NEED OF SELF-DENIAL. 

the end of these things death ? What scriptural evi- 
dence do you possess that you are heirs of eternal life ? 
Are your affections on things below, or on things above ? 
Can you turn your eyes to the Saviour ; and say to hira, 
Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love 
thee ? Jesus Christ has said, Except a man deny him- 
self, and take up his cross daily and follow me, he can 
not be my disciple. Are you conscious of either one of 
these evidences of discipleship ? Christ has said, How 
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the king- 
dom of heaven ; and yet, is it not your all-absorbing 
desire to be rich ? Are you not robbing God by using 
what he has lent to you, in the gratification of worldly 
desires ? An apostle has told us that the lust of the 
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are not of 
the Father, but of the world ; and for these lusts are 
you not sacrificing your souls ? Are not your children 
eagerly drinking in the poison with which you so liberally 
supply them ? Suppose that you, at their age, had been 
wheire your children are now, where would you have 
been at the present moment ? Where, then, will they 
be, when they shall be of your age ? What hope can 
you have of their salvation ? You must meet them at 
the judgment day, and can you abide that meeting ? 

But I forbear. The subject is too painful to be con- 
tinued. It is not too late to return. Let us do again 
our first works. God is yet waiting to be gracious unto 
us. Let us humble ourselves in the dust before him. 
Let us once more take up the forgotten cross, and walk 
in the footsteps of the lowly, self-denying Saviour. 
Let us bring our tithes into the storehouse, and see if 
God will not pour out upon us a blessing that there 



IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 199 

shall not be room enough, to receive it. Then shall we 
know if we follow on to know the Lord. 



XXXIII. 

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. — THE DUTY OF THE DISCIPLES OF 
CHRIST TO MAINTAIN" IT. — WITH US, THIS DUTY REQUIRES A UNIVER- 
SAL EFFORT. — DIFFICULTIES PECULIAR TO OUR CONDITION. 

Some months since, a correspondent of The Exam- 
iner requested me to discuss, more at large than I had 
already done, the subject of the Christian ministry in 
the Baptist denomination. I promised, perhaps in- 
cautiously, that if no one else would perform this 
service I would untertake it myself. It is in fulfill- 
ment of this promise that the following papers are 
written. 

It is too obvious, to need illustration, that one of the 
great objects for which churches of Christ are estab- 
lished, is to maintain the public worship of God. 
Hence, also, one of the first duties devolving on those 
who profess Christianity, is to provide the means by 
which this object shall be accomplished. Under the 
former dispensation, those that feared the Lord spake 
often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and 
heard, and a book of remembrance was kept. Our 
blessed Lord, as his custom was, was seen every Sab- 
bath day in the synagogue, to read and explain to the 
people the Law and the Prophets. An apostle has 
cautioned us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves 
together. Indeed, were there neither precept nor ex- 
ample to enforce this duty, the experience of every 



200 DUTY OF MAINTAINING 

Christian soul must bear witness to its vital import- 
ance. It is thus that we ; once in the week at least, 
publicly testify to the world that we are looking for the 
Sabbath which remains for the people of God. It is 
thus that we strive the better to understand the word 
of God. It is in the sanctuary that we offer up, with 
one heart and voice, our prayers to him who is the 
giver of every good and perfect gift. Here we render 
public thanks for public as w 7 ell as for individual mer- 
cies. It is to the sanctuary that we invite the thought- 
less and impenitent, to hear the words by which they 
may, by the blessing of God, be saved. And we do all 
this, encouraged by the blessed assurance of the Sav- 
iour, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them/' 

The importance of this subject can hardly be exag- 
gerated. Every one knows that the Christian who has 
begun to think lightly of the ordinances of the sanctu- 
ary, is already treading in the path of the backslider. 
Who that, by sickness, or other providential hinder- 
*ance, has been kept for a time from the meeting of the 
saints, has not uttered the plaint of the Psalmist, " My 
flesh longeth, yea, even faint eth for the courts of the 
Lord/' In a village or settlement in our own country, 
where the Sabbath is not honored by the public wor- 
ship of God, how soon do parents and children relapse 
into almost heathenism ! Suppose that any denomina- 
tion should adopt the view, that as religion was a per- 
sonal matter, the assembling for public worship w r as 
needless, and should sell off its churches and close its 
meetings for prayer, who does dot see that it would be- 
come extinct within a single generation ? And, on the 



PUBLIC WORSHIP. 201 

contrary, those denominations are most rapidly extend- 
ing, which furnish the most abundantly, to all classes of 
the community, the means of hearing the preaching of 
the pure word of God. 

Hence it is not remarkable that the making provision 
for public worship has been a leading object with all 
sects of Christians. Where religion is established by 
law, the State assumes this responsibility. The people 
are taxed to support religious worship, and they have 
an equitable claim on the State for the maintenance of 
teachers of religion. In the Episcopal form of church 
government, the oversight of a particular district, called 
a diocese, is devolved on a single individual. He has 
the power of admitting to the ministry — he has the 
whole field under his eye, and to him the people look 
for direction in their efforts to extend the kingdom of 
Christ. A Presbytery frequently exercises a similar in- 
fluence within its limits. With us, however, there is 
no such organization. Every church with us is inde- 
pendent, and is not of necessity associated with any 
other. Every pastor is a Bishop, and holds the highest 
ecclesiastical rank which we acknowledge. Hence it is 
manifest that the responsibility for sustaining the wor- 
ship of God, in our case, rests upon every church, and 
every individual member of a church. We have neither 
State, nor Bishop, nor Presbytery, nor Synod to fall 
back upon. We have assumed this responsibility as 
churches and individuals, and we must abide by the 
choice which — agreeably to the New Testament, as I 
conceive — we have made. Our progress — nay, our very 
existence — depends upon the vitality which pervades 
the whole mass. If every individual disciple would de- 

9 k 



202 INCREASE CF BAPTISTS 

vote himself to the work of extending the kingdom of 
Christ, .relying on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, 
we should need no more organization than existed in 
apostolic times, when they that were scattered abroad 
went everywhere preaching the Word, and when, 
within a single lifetime, the civilized world was filled 
with the knowledge of Christ. If we rely on any thing 
else, it is evident that we must be covered with con- 
fusion. If, instead of putting forth our own power, in 
simple reliance on Christ, we are looking for aid in any 
other direction, we shall find that we have mistaken 
our principles, we have leaned on a broken reed which 
can yield us no adequate support, but will pierce the 
hand which presses upon it. So long as, universally 
vital, each disciple relies on himself, trusting only in 
God, we shall be irresistible. So soon as individual ef- 
fort relaxes, and we trust to means of our own devising, 
we shall inevitably fail. 

It is, besides, worthy of remark, that with us there 
are peculiar difficulties in maintaining throughout our 
whole country the public worship of God. Our people 
belong, in general, not to the class of capitalists. The 
capital of our members commonly consists in skill and 
enterprise, and not in houses, lands, ships, and bank 
securities. Hence, in the mighty exodus now going on 
from the East to the West, a large portion of the em- 
igrants belong to our communion. The wealthy citizen, 
whose gains have been invested in real estate, yielding 
a rich rent, and doubling in value every five or ten 
years, or who holds his hundreds of thousands in secu- 
rities paying eight or ten per cent, per annum, has no 
desire to leave his home in the metrouolis. The rich 



IN THE WEST. 203 

agriculturist, whose well-tilled land is producing a fair 
income, and who sees yearly a new farm added to his 
noble domain, has no inducement to leave the place of 
his fathers' sepulchres, and the region where his single 
influence frequently decides the election for his town 
or county. It is the man of cultivated capacities, who 
knows how to do something well, but is destitute of the 
capital which can render his skill available, who is 
tempted to remove to the West. Such are the men 
wanted in the new States, and there, with the blessing 
of God, they are sure not only of competence, but 
abundance, both for themselves and for their children. 
Accordingly, if I have been correctly informed, you 
will rarely find a settlement of twenty families any- 
where on our western frontier, which is not composed, 
in a marked proportion, of Baptists. These are the 
men who, with faculties developed by the exigencies 
of their new residence, will give character to the West, 
and in a few years find themselves equal to any thing 
they have left behind. They are everywhere manifest- 
ing power, of which they never supposed themselves 
possessed, and are laying broad and deep the founda- 
tions of society far beyond the mountains. 

Hence it is, that the field which we are called upon 
to supply with the public worship of God, is vast in 
extent, and of a very diversified character. For in- 
stance, we have our great cities, in which are to be 
found numerous and wealthy churches. These are 
fully able to maintain public worship at large expense. 
The same may be said of our small cities, and large 
towns, in each of which may be found one or two 
Baptist churches of ample means. Besides these may 



204 PRACTICE OF CITY CHURCHES. 

be counted numerous large villages, where the Baptist 
community is fully accommodated by a single house 
of worship. In all these localities the worship of God 
is maintained in the regular manner, and our churches 
in general follow the examples of those around them. 
But even here, are these churches doing their duty ? 
They secure the services of an able and acceptable 
preacher. Their houses of worship are as tasteful, and 
the religious services as expensive as those of other de- 
nominations. They maintain themselves at a point 
of what is called high respectability. But let us look 
a little further. Ascertain the population of that city 
or town, and ask how large a portion of it attend any 
religious worship at all ? Inquire for the statistics of 
preceding years, and you will probably find that the 
proportion of church-goers is relatively diminishing. 
A large missionary field is spreading abroad on every 
side, in the immediate vicinity of our very churches. 
What are we doing to supply these perishing souls 
with the word of life ? The houses of worship have 
no room for them, and the cost of attendance is beyond 
their means. No man cares for their souls any more 
than for souls in the center of Africa. Have believers 
any right to settle down at their ease, enjoying the priv- 
ileges of the sanctuary, while their fellow-men are per- 
ishing around them in heathenish darkness ? Suppose 
that converts on missionary ground pursued a similar 
course ; how would then the kingdom of Christ be extend- 
ed ? The Karens take a different view of this subject, 
and are subduing Burmah to Christ. But what difference 
does the Saviour make between a church in Toungoo and 
a church in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston ? 



DESTITUTION AT VARIOUS POINTS. 205 

But leaving these classes, which after all, form but 
a moderate portion of our population, we come to 
churches of thirty or forty members, in the older set- 
tlements and in the vast regions of the mighty West. 
These churches are numbered by hundreds, I might say 
by thousands. They are wholly unable to support a 
pastor who shall devote his whole time to preaching, 
and w r ere they able, they could not employ his whole 
time in labors among themselves. How shall the wor- 
ship of God be maintained in such localities ? These 
villages are rapidly increasing, and parents and children 
are growing up destitute of the means of grace so far 
as we are concerned. 

But besides these, there is a still larger region of 
destitution. Our brethren and sisters are emigrating 
by thousands. In every town and village the members 
of Baptist churches are found in fives, and tens, and 
twenties, who have formed themselves into no organiza- 
tion, who are as sheep without a shepherd, and w r ho, 
from neglect of the ordinances of worship, are losing 
the evidences of piety, and falling back into the world. 
What is to be done for these sheep scattered in the 
wilderness ? Must they be left to perish ? Could 
these scattered brethren be united in some organization, 
and engaged in maintaining the public worship of God, 
each little band would become a nucleus, attracting to 
itself similar elements, and thus the foundation of 
churches would be laid, and these silent brethren w r ould 
each one become a noble witness for God. Is it not 
time that something was done ? Can no remedy be 
found for a condition so much to be deplored ? 



206 FACILITIES FOR EXTENDING 



XXXIV. 

FACILITIES IN OUR CONDITION FOR EXTENSION. — OUR LATEST STATISTICS 
SHOW A GREAT NEED OF MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL . 

In my last paper, I briefly sketched the duty devolved 
upon us to maintain the worship of God in the United 
States. That the same obligation rests upon other de- 
nominations, does not diminish the weight of obligation 
pressing upon us. There are our cities fast sinking into 
heathenism, to whose hundreds of thousands of perish- 
ing men we are bound to carry the word of life. There 
are our smaller churches, unable to support a pastor, 
which, for want of the stated worship of God on the 
Sabbath, are annually diminishing, and will soon be 
numbered with the things that were. There are our 
small villages, containing from five to twenty Baptist 
families, too weak, as they consider themselves, to be 
formed into a church, who, almost unknown to each other, 
assume no distinctive badge of Christianity, merely at- 
tending worship, it may be, with other denominations, 
without being able, with a good conscience, to unite 
with them in church fellowship. How are we to main- 
tain the worship of God in all these thousand- 
places ? 

The work, I know, is attended with difficulty; but 
if it can be accomplished, the results will be glorious. 
Every part of the denomination will become vital. In- 
stead of being paralyzed at the extremities, the extrem- 
ities will give evidence of the intensest life. Even our 
scattered condition has incomparable advantages, if we 
would only avail ourselves of them. They that were 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL. 207 

scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the Word. 
In every settlement of the West, there may be found 
the nucleus of a Baptist church, if the members could 
be induced to unite, and hold forth together the word 
of life. The name of the Saviour would be honored in 
thousands of villages and settlements where now the 
Sabbath is almost unheeded. Sinners by multitudes 
would be converted to Christ, and the principles of the 
gospel would from the first be interwoven with the 
whole fabric of society. The Methodists only excepted, 
no sect of Christians enjoys half so great advantages as 
we for bringing this whole country into obedience to 
Christ. 

Nor is it to be forgotten that our views on these sub- 
jects are peculiarly favorable to every form of aggressive 
Christianity. Meetings for conference and prayer, where 
every believer is invited to express his religious senti- 
ments, to exhort his brethren, and to warn the impeni- 
tent, have always been considered a part of our religious 
services on the Sabbath or week day evening. While 
we respect every department of human learning, and 
believe it to be the duty of the minister of Christ to give 
attention to reading, and to every form of mental cul- 
tivation, that his profiting may appear unto all, we 
have never avowedly dared to require in the candidate 
for the ministry any other qualifications than those 
w^hich the Holy Ghost has required. We generally be- 
lieve that God designs for laborers in his vineyard, men 
of every variety of human culture. It was so in apos- 
tolic times, and we believe it to be so now. The Bap- 
tist, therefore, welcomes to the ministry of the Word 
every brother, whatever be his attainments, who to fer- 



208 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 

vent and consistent piety adds the gift of speaking in 
public, to the edification of saints and the awakening 
of sinners. We have established no barriers of human 
invention to restrict the number of ministers. On the 
contrary, we receive joyfully every brother on whom the 
Holy Spirit has conferred the gift of teaching. 

Enjoying these advantages for extending the kingdom 
of Christ, it is important to inquire whether we are im- 
proving them. Are we using the means which God has 
given us to subdue our country to the Saviour, or are 
we failing in this duty, and coming short of the blessing 
which has been so richly proffered to us by the head of 
the church ? 

The instrumentality which Grod has appointed for 
cultivating the worship of the sanctuary, is the ministry 
of the gospel. We are assured, in the most solemn 
manner, that the Holy Spirit confers upon his churches 
the gifts which qualify men for this office. When the 
Messiah ascended on high and led captivity captive, he 
gave gifts unto men ; and what were these gifts, the 
most important which the ascended Messiah could be- 
stow ? He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and 
some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for 
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ. This was the 
object of his gifts. When they are not, therefore, en- 
joyed, the churches must suffer loss, and the progress 
of religion be arrested. It therefore becomes a matter 
of deep interest in any denomination, to ascertain 
whether it be supplied with the ministry of the Word, 
and other means for conducting public worship. 

It is with this view that I ask attention to the fol- 



STATISTICS OF THE MINISTRY. 209 

lowing statistics. They are compiled from the Amer- 
ican Baptist Register, for 1852, the latest authority on 
this subject with which I am acquainted. The figures 
may not perfectly agree ^ith our present condition, but 
they are sufficiently accurate for the purpose which. I 
have in view. 

From this authority, which I believe has been pre- 
pared with great care, it appears that we had, in 1852, 
9,584 churches, averaging 81 members in each. 

We had ordained ministers 6,291, which deducted 
from the number of churches, leaves 3,293 churches 
destitute of pastors. 

But of these ordained ministers, we find that about 
730 are without charge. Of these, some are engaged in 
supplying destitute churches, but the greater part either 
do not preach, or else merely act as supplies when the 
stated minister is absent or sick. Besides these, there 
is a large number of our ordained ministers who are en- 
gaged as teachers, professors, editors, or agents. These 
are not enumerated in those without charge. If we 
therefore deduct 730 as without charge from the num- 
ber of ordained ministers, we have 4,023 as the number 
which designates the deficiency of pastors among us. 
That is, out of 9,584 churches, there are 4,023 without 
regular pastors. Nearly one half of our churches then, 
it would seem, are destitute of the stated means of 
grace. 

A deduction from this statement must, however, be 
made on account of licentiates. This is the natural 
source of supply for the ministry. In former times, 
these, among us, were far more numerous than the 
regular pastors. The number of licentiates, however, 



210 STATISTICS OF 

given in. the Register, is 1,146, or about one to eight 
churches. Is it not strange that eight of our churches, 
on an average, should furnish but one licentiate in the 
ministry. The churches in Germany furnish a much 
greater number of licentiates than pastors, and these 
are the means of their wonderful increase. If we sup- 
pose every licentiate to be the regular supply of a church, 
which is, however, very far from the fact, we still have 
2,877 churches without the regular means of grace. 
That is, about a third of our churches are, at this mo- 
ment, without the preaching of the gospel. 

Nor is this evil by any means diminishing. From the 
Register we learn that we had — 

In 1792 — 1,000 churches, and 1,264 ministers, that 
is, 264 more ministers than churches. 

In 1812 — 2,433 churches, and 1,792 ministers, leav- 
ing a deficiency of ministers of 611. 

In 1832 — 5,322 churches, and 3,647 ministers, leav- 
ing a deficiency of ministers of 1,675. 

In 1852— 9,584 churches, and 7,393 ministers,* leav- 
ing a deficiency of ministers of 2,191, and if from the 
number of ministers we deduct those without charge, 
the deficiency will be 2,889, or very nearly what we 
have stated above. 

It would seem, then, that in 1852, there were about 
2,800 churches in the United States, with congregations 
expecting from us the word of life, for which we make 
no provision. It would also seem that this deficiency 
is increasing at a very rapid ratio. In 1792 we had 264 
more ministers than churches, and in 1852 we had over 
2,800 more churches than ministers, including all our 
licentiates. It may be said that some of these minis- 

* This includes licentiates. 



THE CHURCHES. 211 

ters supply three or four churches. Be it so. It alters 
not the case, for if we take any one Sabbath in the 
year, in which all the pastors and all the licentiates are 
engaged in preaching, there would still remain the 
same number of churches without any supply. Or, if 
we took into the account those without charge, and all 
the editors, teachers, and agents, of every class, and 
supposed everyone of them to supply a destitute church, 
there would still be more than 2,000 churches without a 
preacher of the gospel. 

But let us look at the subject from another point of 
view. Suppose these 9,584 churches all supplied with 
pastors. The average duration of a pastor's life is not 
probably more than twenty-five years. I do not mean that 
no man lives more than twenty-five years after he enters 
the ministry, but that taking into account sickness, the 
leaving the ministry for other occupations, and removals 
by death, I presume that twenty-five years of service for 
each individual, is a large average. To supply these 
churches then, at their present condition, without any 
hope of increase, would require 383 ministers annually. 
But if we hope to increase by the multiplication of 
churches, and by cherishing those small collections of 
members to be found in every settlement in the West, 
and by calling in the thousands of heathen swarming in 
all our large cities, we should need, certainly, as many 
more. The number of our churches in 1832 w r as 5,322, 
in 1852 it was 9,552, that is, our increase in churches 
was 4,230. To supply this demand, we should then 
require 211 ministers annually. This number added to 
383, equals 594, or the number demanded at our present 
rate of increase. About 600 ministers, as an annual 



212 COURSE TO BE PURSUED 

supply, is no more than would be required to place us 
in a condition to occupy the field which. God, in his 
providence has placed before us ? After every deduc- 
tion has been made, with. 2,800 destitute churches, and 
an annual demand for 600 ministers, and this deficiency 
rapidly increasing, what are the prospects before us ? 
It is for us who are now living, looking back upon the past, 
and forward into the future, to answer this question. 



XXXV. 

IN OUR PRESENT CONDITION WHAT IS TO BE DONE ? CAN THEOLOGICAL SEM- 
INARIES AND COLLEGES SUPPLY OUR NEED? — THE ANSWER GIVEN BY 
STATISTICS. — WE NEED A GREAT NUMBER OF MINISTERS, AND WE NEED 
THAT EVERY MINISTER BE MADE AS EFFICIENT AS POSSIBLE. 

I think that no Baptist can have reflected on the 
facts stated in my last number, without grave concern. 
If the course which we are pursuing must soon arrest 
our progress, and end in fatal decline, it becomes us to 
look at the whole matter soberly, resolutely, and cour- 
ageously ; and, in the fear of God, to adopt such meas- 
ures as may lead to a change for the better. 

It may possibly be objected that the statistics which 
I have used are incorrect. Of the value of this ob- 
jection, I have not the means of forming an opinion. 
I know not why their truth should be suspected. They 
were collected with great care, and on the most re- 
sponsible authority ; and they have been for several 
years before the public. It therefore becomes him who 
objects to their results, to show their inaccuracy. But 
let any one make all the deductions which he would 



UNDER PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES. 213 

consider reasonable, and I do not believe that it would 
be possible for him to modify, in any important respect, 
the conclusions at which I have arrived ; namely, that 
we are in danger of coming short of our destiny, and of 
failing utterly to accomplish the work which Grocl has 
mercifully set before us, in consequence of a fearful 
deficiency of ministers of the gospel. 

Again, it may be said that we are in this respect no 
more culpable than other denominations. I very much 
doubt it. There is no other denomination that has 
within itself the same elements of increase as the Bap- 
tists, except the Methodists ; and they are better sup- 
plied with ministers than we. But suppose it to be the 
fact that we are in the same case as others, does this 
render our case at all the better ? If we, by adopting 
their practices, at variance with our own principles, ar6 
suffering as badly as they, does this render our case the 
more hopeful ? 

But a thoughtful man will naturally ask, If such be 
the case, what is to be done ? When this question is 
asked, nine out of ten persons who hear it will spon- 
taneously reply, We must look to our colleges and 
theological seminaries. These are the fountains from 
which our ministry are to issue, and it is by their aid 
that this deficiency is to be supplied. Our agents have 
repeated this in our ears so often, that we believe it 
almost as we do an axiom, without examination and 
without question. Let us then turn again to the 
American Baptist Register, and see what aid we have 
received, or are likely to receive, from this quarter. 

On page 450 of the American Baptist Register, is a 
table exhibiting the statistics of ail our theological 



214 THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS TOO FEW 

seminaries and colleges. Since the year 1820, we have 
established ten theological seminaries. These, in the 
year 1852, contained 105 students, and 24 professors. 
Supposing the course of study in each to be three years, 
the annual supply from this source would be exactly 
thirty-five. If we deduct from this number those 
who are needed for foreign missions, those who be- 
come professors, teachers, editors, and agents — what 
is left for the supply of the ministry at home ? Our 
annual demand for the supply of the ministry we have 
estimated at about 600. From our seminaries we may 
expect, at most, twenty -five or thirty, or about one to 
each professor. The seminary at Newton, Massachu- 
setts, is better endowed than any other which we have 
established. It possesses spacious grounds and ex- 
tensive buildings, a fund of $100,000 was lately raised 
for its support, and it besides receives large aid from 
the Education Society. Its number of graduates up 
to 1852, is set down at 201. It had been in existence 
then twenty-seven years. Its average number of grad- 
uates per annum has been about seven and a half, or 
not quite two to a professor. The whole number of 
those who had studied there, whether pursuing the 
complete course or not, is 300. The annual average of 
these is a fraction over eleven. These facts are suf- 
ficient to exhibit the amount of supply which the min- 
istry may expect from this source. 

On the same page are the statistics of colleges. Of 
these we have established twenty-two. In them, in the 
year 1852, there were preparing for the Baptist minis- 
try three hundred and twelve. Supposing a college 
course to be four years, the annual supply from this 



TO SUPPLY OUK WANTS. 215 

source would be seventy-eight. It is well known, 
however, that a considerable proportion of those prepar- 
ing for the ministry in college never enter it. On the 
other hand, a considerable number of Baptist students 
are found in other than Baptist colleges. It is, however, 
to be observed that almost all who at present attend our 
theolqgical seminaries, are graduates of colleges. We 
can not, therefore, in estimating our supply, add the 
students at college to those at the seminaries. It is 
difficult to determine the number of candidates for the 
ministry, who annually come from our colleges and 
theological seminaries. Probably they do not exceed 
ninety or one hundred, and from this number must be 
deducted those who become professors, teachers, editors, 
agents, foreign missionaries, and those who relinquish 
their intention of entering the ministry. Making the 
most liberal calculation, it is manifestly absurd to rely 
upon any such means as these to supply our annual 
demand. Our present condition may be in a great 
measure owing to a too great reliance upon these sources 
for the supply of our necessities. 

Since, then, the means which we have adopted have 
manifestly failed, shall we despair ? Can no other 
means be employed ? Are there no encouragements 
left us, or have we sought for them in a wrong direc- 
tion ? Let us look again. We are men and Christians, 
does the gospel of Jesus Christ teach us nothing upon 
this subject ? Let us then look upon our condition in 
the light which comes from the Holy Oracle, and see 
whether we can discover a more excellent way. 

What then is the object which is set before us as 
disciples of Christ ? Is it any thing less than to sub- 



216 MEANS FOR INCREASING THE 

due the whole world to God ? u Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature/' Is there 
a creature of God on earth to whom we are not bound 
to send this salvation ? But if we confine ourselves to 
our own country, what is the object set before us as 
Christian citizens of the United States ? Is it simply 
to build for ourselves, in wealthy places, expensive 
houses of worship, and surround our services with the 
means of gratifying the senses, and then sit down and 
enjoy an intellectual effort, sanctified by a tincture of 
religion ? Oh, no ! Christ has set before the whole of 
us an infinitely higher object for which to live. It is to 
subdue this whole nation to himself. This is the work 
which he has set before his church, and before every 
part of it. We, as a part of his church, are bound to 
consecrate our whole energies to this work, and to leave 
no effort unexpended until it is done thoroughly. This 
is the duty of every portion of the Lord's host. 

But is this a work to which we are competent ? Can 
we with a united effort, suppose we were to put it forth 
to the full, convert a single soul ? We all know that 
this is impossible. Are we capable of devising, by our 
own wisdom, the best means for effecting this work ? 
Every Christian soul will instantly, and with em- 
phasis, answer, No. Hath not God made foolish the 
wisdom of this world ? God makes use of what the 
world calls folly to confound the wise. The work itself, 
and all the means for accomplishing it, belong to God. 
We must work upon his plan if we ever anticipate suc- 
cess. The more humbly we look to him for direction, 
eschewing our own wisdom and relying on his omnisci- 
ence, the greater must be the certainty of our triumph. 



SUPPLY OF MINISTERS. 217 

Indeed, under any other conditions, we must be con- 
demned to palpable and disgraceful failure. 

Now, so far as this subject is concerned, there are 
two necessities which press with great severity upon us. 
In order to carry forward the work which the Master 
has set before us, we need in the first place a great 
number of ministers of Jesus Christ ; and, in the second 
place, we need to increase to the utmost the efficiency 
of every minister ; for the work is vast, and requires the 
best use of all the talent which the Master li/is called to 
the service. I ask my brethren to consider these two 
points separately. It seems to me that they have been 
unfortunately confounded in most of our discussions of 
this subject, and that hence has arisen great confusion 
in our counsels. 

In the first place, then, we need a vastly greater num- 
ber of ministers of the gospel. 

But how, let me ask, are ministers of the gospel 
created such ? I ask this question, not in the light of 
worldly wisdom, but as a disciple of Christ and a be- 
liever in the New Testament. Under the old dispensa- 
tion, God did not leave the selection of those who waited 
upon the altar to man. " No man taketh this honor 
upon himself, but he that was called of God, as was 
Aaron." Under the new dispensation the same princi- 
ple was adopted. God chooses to select his own agents 
for carrying on his work. Every Christian knows that 
there are peculiar moral and intellectual gifts which 
alone can qualify a man to be a successful minister of 
Christ. But can we bestow these gifts ? Will human 
knowledge or human training confer them ? Will Latin, 
or Greek, or mathematics create a love for souls, or 

10 



218 NEED OF EARNEST PRAYER 

touch the lips even of a pious man with that burning 
eloquence which rivets the attention, arouses the con- 
science, and carries the naked truth directly to the 
heart, mighty through Grod to cast down every strong 
hold, and bring the man to obedience to Christ ? I 
need not suggest the answer to these questions ; it is 
made already by every disciple of Christ. 

But for this necessity a provision is made in the plan 
of man's salvation. As I have said before, we are 
assured that when our blessed Lord ascended on high, 
he received gifts for men, and that among these gifts 
were evangelists, pastors, and teachers. It is Jesus 
Christ who, by the effusion of his Spirit in special be- 
stowment and measure, appoints those whom he calls 
to his service. He does the work which we can not do. 
From him these gifts are derived, and by him are they 
maintained in the churches. 

But have we nothing to do in this matter ? I answer, 
we have much to do. Our Lord himself has told us 
what it is. These gifts are bestowed in answer to 
prayer. The harvest is great, the laborers are few; 
proAj ye therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he 
will send forth laborers into his harvest. If, in earnest 
prayer, we look up to him for those gifts which he has 
received for us, he will assuredly bestow them abund- 
antly. Such seems to me to be the plan of the Master 
for the supply of the ministry. Can we devise a better ? 



TO OBTAIN SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 219 

XXXVI. 

THE GIFTS WHICH CHRIST, ON HIS ASCENSION, RECEIVED FOR HIS CHURCH. 
—THESE GIFTS BESTOWED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER. — WHAT IS EF- 
FECTUAL PRAYER. 

I can readily anticipate the objections that will be 
made to the doctrine of the last number. Some will 
say that it is all theoretical, and that we want some- 
thing practical. Others will style it fanaticism, or 
mysticism, and accuse me of vague and dreamy prosing. 

There are, however, others who will understand me, 
the men who believe that there is a Holy Ghost, who 
have felt his power, w T ho know what is meant by the 
prayer of faith, and who receive with childlike sim- 
plicity whatever the Master has said. The eye of faith 
can discover things invisible to the wisdom of this 
world. In this, however, there is nothing extraor- 
dinary. Each party looks upon the subject from its 
own point of view, and these points of view are exceed- 
ingly dissimilar. Revelation has made known to us 
the reason of this divergence in the simple announce- 
ment, " The natural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned ; but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, 
yet he himself is judged (discerned, comprehended,) of 
no man." 

Taking then the simple teaching of Christ and his 
apostles, we learn that Christ received at his ascension 
gifts for the ministry, which he is ready to bestow upon 
his body, the church, and that he will bestow them in 
answer to prayer to the Lord of the harvest. Such is 



220 BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL 

the divine method for proclaiming through the world 
the message of salvation, and thus is the church to be 
furnished with a ministry. 

Let us pause for a while and attempt to develop the 
idea. 

It is said by the apostle Paul that the ascended 
Messiah received the gifts of evangelists, pastors, and 
teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 
of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of Christ. 
Now it is manifest that the work of the ministry is a 
universal work. It is to be carried on wherever there 
is a creature to whom the gospel can be preached. 
Wherever there is a sinner to be saved, there is a 
demand for the ministration of the Word. Again, 
these gifts were for the edification of the body of 
Christ. I ask, Were they for the edification of the 
whole, or of a part of this body ? Would food be for 
the nourishment of the body which supported only a 
hand or foot, or the head or the heart ? Instead of 
symmetrically nourishing the whole body, would such 
food create any thing but monstrosity ? So when Christ 
received these gifts for his body, was it not for the 
whole body, to its remotest extremities, for every mus- 
cle and sinew, for every artery and nerve, so that the 
most insignificant portion of his body might receive, 
equally with all the rest, the benefit of his completed 
mediatorial work ? 

The application of this truth to our present purpose 
is self-evident. Did Christ receive the gifts of evangel- 
ists, pastors, and teachers only for great cities, for me- 
tropolitan temples, where the rich, and the mighty, and 
the learned most do congregate ? Has he who is now 



DESIGNED FOR ALL. 221 

seated "on the mediatorial throne, forgotten the poor to 
whom, in the days of his humiliation, he preached the 
gospel, and with whom in his houseless wanderings he 
most associated ? Is Jesus Christ the same yester- 
day, and to-day, and forever, or has he, once the friend 
of the friendless, now chosen new associates ? No, 
brethren, the Messiah is not changed. He has as rich 
gifts in store for the hamlet in the wilderness, for the 
few disciples, the twos and threes who meet in his 
name unnoticed and unknown, in the log-cabin, the 
school-house, or the barn, as for those who sit before 
him under Gothic arches, and are lulled to moral for- 
getfulness by the music of Rossini or Beethoven. 

Again, these gifts are bestowed upon the body of Christ 
in answer to prayer. u Pray ye the Lord of the harvest/' 

But what do we mean by prayer ? Is it merely the 
form of words in which the heart has no share ? Is it 
any thing else than the earnest outpouring of a deeply 
affected spirit ? Do we ever pray in truth, unless the 
object for which we supplicate exerts an absolutely con- 
trolling power over every opposing desire ? Suppose a 
man pray long and much, and even tearfully for holi- 
ness, while his love of holiness is not sufficient to con- 
trol his avarice, or vindictiveness, or any other evil 
passion, can this be prayer in the sight of God ? "If 
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
me." Suppose that some object, innocent in itself, has 
become an idol, and has assumed the chief place in our 
affections, and we pray for holiness, but can not give 
up our idol, though we know that idolatry and holiness 
are incompatible with each other, can our prayer be 
" offered up with much incense ?" And thus, if we 



222 IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY 

pray for any blessing, we must surrender every thing 
incompatible with it, and do every thing that the earn- 
est desire for such a blessing would indicate. This is 
the only condition on which the answer to our prayers 
is promised. " If ye abide in me and my words abide 
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done 
unto you/' And yet more, if we pray in the spirit, we 
shall not restrict the Most High in the manner of his 
answer, believing that he knows, far better than we, 
what will best gratify our holiest desires and glorify his 
own name. 

Now let us apply these remarks, to which I am sure 
every Christian heart responds, to our present case. I 
suppose that we all believe that God has placed us 
here to subdue this country to himself, that this is 
our calling above and beyond all others, and that we 
must give account unto God for the manner in which 
we discharge this trust, and occupy the talent com- 
mitted unto us. Suppose this to be, as it ought to be, 
the sentiment that controlled all the departments of 
practical life, and which more than any other occupied 
our most earnest thoughts. Were this the fact, could 
we live as we do ? Could we enter with those w r ho 
know not God upon the eager pursuit of wealth ? 
Could we be found among the votaries of almost every 
form of sensual pleasure ? Would not this controlling 
object modify and chasten every desire, and render the 
things which earthly men strive after distasteful to our 
souls ? Would it not entirely reform the maxims which 
govern us in the expenditure of wealth ? Could we vie 
with earthly men in luxurious display, while the prog- 
ress of the gospel is everywhere impeded for want of 



IN PRAYER. 223 

the wealth, which we squander in that frivolous ex- 
travagance which is leading men by multitudes to 
destruction ? Can we pray that the kingdom of God 
may come, while we stand directly in the way of its 
progress ? Can we supplicate for the increase of holi- 
ness on earth, while we love our idols better than 
holiness ? Can Ave ask men to come out from the 
world, while we ourselves are immersed in worldliness ? 
Can we invite men to deny themselves and take up the 
cross, while we live in luxury, and touch not the cross 
with one of our ringers ? 

Brethren, it is a more solemn thing to pray than we 
are commonly aware of. If we really pray for the ex- 
tension of Christ's kingdom, we must live like men who 
make the extension of that kingdom the great business 
of our lives. This will require the sacrifice of many an 
idol. It will cost many a self-denial, and will expose 
us to many a scoff and reproach. But will not the ob- 
ject be worth the sacrifice ? Is there not a crown of 
righteousness in reserve for those who fight this good 
fight ? If the Saviour gave himself for every one of 
us, is it much for every one of us to give up himself to 
Christ ? If we pray, Thy kingdom come, can we do 
less than live so that the kingdom of God may come ? 

Were this accomplished, were any denomination of 
Christians, nay, were a single church thus to arise from 
the dust and put on its beautiful garments, how vast 
would be its moral power. Every disciple would be a 
witness for Christ. The gifts whereby the body of 
Christ is perfected and the work of the ministry ac- 
complished, would be poured out abundantly. Saints — 
now buried under houses, and lands, and stocks, and mer- 



224 FRUITS TO BE EXPECTED 

chandise, and aspirations for political office, and leader- 
ship in fashion — would arise as if from the dead, and 
Christ would give them life. They would look back 
with shame at the hole of the pit from which they 
had been digged, and henceforth resolve to know noth- 
ing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Among these, 
how many would be found endowed with gifts which 
neither they nor their brethren supposed them to pos- 
sess. The talent unrolled from the napkin would shine 
with the splendor of burnished gold. Evangelists, pas- 
tors, and teachers, would spring up among our lawyers, 
physicians, merchants, manufacturers, and mechanics. 
Each church would number its chosen disciples, who, 
on the Sabbath, would be carrying the message of sal- 
vation to the perishing ; while, on the other days of the 
week, they would exemplify to the world the life of him 
whose affections are set on things above, where Christ 
dwelleth. Were all our churches such churches as 
these, the world would know something of the moral 
power which belongs to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
Were the churches of our denomination such as these, 
in a single generation this nation would be the people 
of the Most High. Holiness to the Lord would be writ- 
ten upon our legislative halls, our executive chambers, 
our courts of justice, our marts of trade, and our coun- 
try would be the first on earth to welcome the coming 
of the Son of God. 

I need hardly add that if we thus live, and thus pray 
for the bestowment of ministerial gifts, we shall thank- 
fully receive them in any form in which they may be 
presented to us. Whether they come to us adorned 
with classical culture, or rich in the blessed gift of nat- 



FROM EARNEST SUPPLICATION. 225 

ural common sense ; whether in the young disciple, or 
in the mature Christian ; whether associated with secu- 
lar avocations, or under circumstances which enable 
men to devote themselves wholly to the work of the 
Lord, w r e shall welcome them all with hearty good will 
as laborers in the vineyard of the Lord. We should 
not hedge about the vineyard, and admit no one to 
labor within it unless he entered by the narrow wicket- 
gate which we had set up. Much less should we, either 
directly or indirectly, create the impression that no man 
was competent to teach men the way of salvation, un- 
less he had spent several of the best years of his life in 
the study of heathen poets imbued with the licentious- 
ness which Paul depicts in his Epistle to the Eomans. 
While, under these circumstances, w r e should put all 
due honor on every form of valuable human learning, 
and give to every minister all the human means in our 
power to make his profiting appear unto all, we should 
not dare to limit the Holy One of Israel, or place any 
culture which we could furnish in comparison for a mo- 
ment with the gifts of the Spirit of God. 

I ask my Christian brethren whether, in such a re- 
ligious state of the churches as this, there would be any 
want of ministers ? Would not every church be able 
to furnish the public worship of God to all the moral 
waste which surrounded it ? Is not this the plan which 
the Saviour himself has marked out for us ? Are any 
of the means which we now employ likely to accomplish 
the object ? Is it probable that we can improve upon 
the plan of the Master, or can we expect His blessing 
in doing His work, unless we do it after the example 
which he has left us ? 

10* 



226 DUTY OF BAPTISTS 

XXXVII. 

DUTY OF BAPTISTS IN NEW SETTLEMENTS WHERE THEIR NUMBER IS SMALL 
TO KNOW EACH OTHER, MEET TOGETHER FOR WORSHIP, ORGANIZE 
SABBATH-SCHOOLS, AND SEEK OUT FOR GIFTS FOR THE MINISTRY AMONG 
THEMSELYES. 

In my last number I endeavored to present the mode 
for increasing the ministry which the Lord has ap- 
pointed. I ask. Have I not presented it truly ? Has 
not Christ assured us that he has received these gifts, 
and when they are needed, has he not directed us to 
pray for them ? If this is his appointment, can our 
wants be supplied in any other way ? Men may call 
this fanaticism and mysticism, but so they frequently 
call the doctrines of regeneration and the influences of 
the Holy Spirit. We know these, nevertheless, to be 
realities. Is not one part of Christ's teaching a reality 
as much as the other ? 

But it may be desirable for us to consider this sub- 
ject more in detail, and show how these truths should 
guide us in particular instances. 

I will commence with those cases in which a few 
Baptist families only are found in a village or settle- 
ment at the West, or in any part of our country. In- 
stances of this kind are innumerable. There may be 
churches of other denominations in the vicinity, or the 
whole locality may be destitute of any public religious 
service. We ask, What is the duty of these few scat- 
tered Baptist professors of the name of Jesus ? 

In answering this question, I suppose it is hardly 
necessary to state, that neither time nor situation 
changes the relations which exist between the believer 



IN NEW SETTLEMENTS. 227 

and his Saviour. The commands of Christ are as oblig- 
atory in the West as in the East, in the country as in 
the city, in the new territory as in the old settlement. 
His command to us all is to preach the gospel to 
every creature, to let our light shine before men, to hold 
forth the word of life, and to forsake not the assembling 
of ourselves together. The more dense the surrounding 
darkness, the brighter should our light shine. The 
greater the dearth of the word of life, the more imper- 
ative the obligation resting upon us to make known to 
men the message of salvation. We must do this indi- 
vidually, but in order to do it more effectually, we must 
do it together. We must worship God by entering 
into our closets ; but in order to reap all the benefits 
which Christ has promised, the various twos and threes 
scattered abroad must meet together in his name, and 
he has assured us that there he is present in the midst 
of them. 

1. In the first place, to such brethren, who, in the 
providence of God, are thus scattered abroad, I would 
say, inquire for and know each other. A little inquiry 
will generally suffice for this purpose. When every 
one knows his neighbor, where he comes from, and who 
are his connections, and what his occupation, the 
religious associations of each may, without difficulty, 
be discovered. When Mr. Thomas, who preceded Dr. 
Carey in India, had been for some time in Calcutta, 
inquiring in vain for a Christian brother, he inserted an 
advertisement in the newspaper, requesting that if there 
were such a one there, of any denomination, he would 
make himself known. We should have no such diffi- 
culty here in ascertaining the existence of our brethren. 



228 MEETINGS FOR WORSHIP. 



It frequently happens that a missionary, in a day or 
two, will find out eight or ten Baptist professors in a 
settlement who had been before unknown as such to 
each other. But what can be done by a missionary 
stranger, may be done by any one who will take the 
trouble to do it. Let any brother, who may chance to 
read these lines, at once undertake this labor of love. 
Or, if no brother will undertake it, let some Phebe, who 
u has been a succorer of many," become a " servant of 
the church" in this important matter. This is the 
incipient step. Until this be done, nothing can be 
accomplished, and in a multitude of cases, it w T il] reveal 
the important fact, that each brother and sister is sur- 
rounded by brethren and sisters, fellow-helpers in the 
Lord, of whose religious profession he had thus far been 
profoundly ignorant. 

2. In the second place, I would most earnestly urge 
these brethren and sisters to establish a meeting for the 
worship of God. Begin on a week day evening. Meet 
and read the Scriptures, and unite with each other in 
prayer and conference. Call in your neighbors. Tell 
them of the love of Christ. Confess your fault in not 
having done your duty to each other before. Confess 
Christ before all men, and pray for the effusion of the 
Holy Spirit upon your neighbors, your friends, and your 
families. Do not ask, Where shall we meet ? Where 
is the Christian who would not willingly open his house 
for such a service ? The first meeting of Christians 
after the resurrection was in a private house ; and it is 
in private houses that many of our most flourishing 
churches have been planted. JIake sacrifices to attend 
this meeting. Business may press, cares may multiply, 



MUTUAL SPIRITUAL CARE. 229 

inconveniences may thicken; but if Jesus lias promised 
to be there, should any worldly business keep you away 
from meeting him ? This life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things which we possess. Is any 
earthly possession to be compared with Christ in us the 
hope of glory ? 

Having done this, the next step will be easy. Collect 
the children around you into the Sabbath-school. There 
instruct them in the knowledge of God, and in rever- 
ence for his holy day. Bring them up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord. This will, by the blessing 
of God, shield them from innumerable temptations, and 
lead them to the Lamb of God. But this is not all. 
Can you feed the souls of others without yourselves 
being refreshed with the bread which came down from 
heaven ? He that watereth shall be watered himself. 
Thus you will assuredly find it to be. The change 
within and around you will gladden your own hearts, 
and the Lord will give you souls for your hire. 

3. Assume, in the third place, a spiritual care for 
each other. This is a duty devolving upon every dis- 
ciple of Christ, wherever his lot may be cast. If you 
see a brother liable to err, caution him. If he has done 
wrong, set the wrong before him in the spirit of meek- 
ness, and it shall be an excellent oil which shall not 
break his head, and his prayer shall be for you in the 
day of your calamity. Brethren, if any of you do err 
from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that 
he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way, 
shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multi- 
tude of sins. If a few brethren in an irreligious neigh- 
borhood were thus to bear testimony for Christ, how 



230 SEEKING MINISTERIAL GIFTS. 

blessed would be the light which they w T ould diffuse 
around them ! Impenitent men would confess the re- 
ality of religion, and acknowledge that God is with 
them of a truth. 

4. But you need for your progress and establishment 
ministerial gifts. You need some one who shall, in a 
greater or less degree, take the oversight of you. 
Where shall you look for such gifts ? I would say 
without reserve, look at home, instead of abroad. Who 
has received for you ministerial gifts ? Who is more 
ready to bestow all that he possesses upon you, than 
Christ ? He is not afar off. He is in the midst of 
you. Why then should you not go to him directly, 
and tell him your wants ? You may, in the full as- 
surance of faith, go and ask for all that you require. 
You are laboring, not for yourselves, but for him. You 
are doing his work, and not your own. He does not 
require you to go into this warfare at your own charges. 
You may confidently ask of him all that is requisite for 
the work which he has placed in your hands. And while 
you thus pray, look out among yourselves, and inquire 
if there be not some brother who indicates talent which 
may be employed in his cause. Encourage him, and 
pray specially for him, and you may thus find yourselves 
supplied in a manner which you had least expected. 

Whenever it is in your power, send for the nearest 
ministering brother to come and spend a few days with 
you, and if possible, administer to you the ordinances 
of the gospel. Do not ask him to labor at his own 
charges. Frequently a brother who would willingly aid 
you, has not the means for making the journey. Let 
one of you go and fetch him, or pay the expenses of 



ORGANIZING A CHURCH. 231 

his traveling. Receive him with all kindness, and let 
him feel that he is with his brethren. His heart will 
move him to come again, and thus he will be a joyful 
co-worker with you in building up the kingdom of our 
common Master. 

In the next place, as soon as possible organize a 
church. It is not necessary that a church be large in 
order to be efficient. The smallest church, relying 
upon God and doing his will, is mighty to the pulling 
down of strongholds. The largest church, relying upon 
human means, or going down to Egypt for help, is 
frequently only a stumbling-block in the way of the 
progress of piety. But before this, if you have not 
been able to organize worship on the Sabbath, attend 
statedly on the worship of any evangelical denomina- 
tion. Let your sentiments, however, be fully known. 
Let it be understood that you are Baptists, and that, 
as soon as the providence of God shall open the way, 
you intend to be organized as a Baptist church. Do 
not, in the mean time, neglect the assembling of your- 
selves together. Meet for prayer and conference, as I 
have before advised. Do all in your own power, and 
your power will rapidly increase. Cease to cooperate 
with each other, and you will soon be powerless. 

Nor, in all this, is there any thing bigoted or secta- 
rian. You have your own belief, and you hold it to be 
important ; why then should you not sustain it ? You 
have principles ; why should not your practice conform 
to them ? You have a work to do, as well as Chris- 
tians of other denominations ; why should you not do 
it ? And while doing it, cultivate in your hearts, and 
exemplify in your lives, an earnest and fervent love for 



232 DUTY OF FEEBLE CHURCHES 

all that love the Lord Jesus Christ. Aid your Chris- 
tian brethren of other denominations by all the means 
in your power. Sorrow in their trials, and rejoice in 
their success. Cooperate with them in every good de- 
sign, as far as you can do it without a sacrifice of prin- 
ciple. Far be it from us to diminish the influence, or 
curtail the usefulness of any disciple of Christ. "We 
war not against them, but against the powers of dark- 
ness, against spiritual wickedness in high places. While 
we firmly adhere to what we believe to be the truth, 
we steadfastly allow to others the liberty which we claim 
for ourselves. Such has ever been the practice of Bap- 
tists, as it was, of old, the practice of Koger Williams. 



XXXVIII. 

DUTY OF FEEBLE CHURCHES TO RELY, UNDER GOD, OX THEMSELVES; TO 
CULTIVATE TALENT FOR THE MINISTRY AMONG THEIR OWN MEMBERS. 
— ALWAYS HOLD WORSHIP ON THE SABBATH. — PAY A MINISTERING 
BROTHER FOR HIS TIME AND EXPENSES; BE NOT ASHAMED OF HIM IF 
HE BE A LABORING MAN. 

I come now to consider another class of cases, in 
which, however, the same principles are involved, 
though their application is slightly different. Asking 
my readers to bear in mind what has been already sug- 
gested, I will proceed to make a few remarks on the 
duty of what are called small and feeble churches. I 
here allude to churches composed of from twenty to 
forty members. Some of these are situated in villages, 
others in rural districts, sparsely settled, the members 
living at considerable distances from each other. They 



TO RELY ON THEMSELVES. 233 

are generally composed of men in moderate circum- 
stances, with here and there one, or perhaps two indi- 
viduals of wealth among them. They have not the 
ability to support a minister who shall spend his whole 
time in laboring for them, nor even, if they should sup- 
port him ; would there be sufficient ministerial work to 
employ him in their service. Hence they are frequently 
destitute of a pastor, or else three or four such churches 
unite and employ a pastor between them. On the Sab- 
baths in which the pastor is absent, worship is not 
maintained. The young members of the congregation 
are growing up thoughtless and indifferent to the sub- 
ject of religion, now and then a member is added, and 
thus the existence of the church is protracted, but it 
makes no progress, and is probably, at the present day, 
very nearly where it was some ten or twenty years 
since. 

Now this is manifestly an unnatural condition for a 
church of Christ. The kingdom of the Messiah is al- 
ways represented as going forth " conquering and to 
conquer/' A church in such a state goes not forth, and 
it achieves no victories. It remains year after year in 
the same position, merely existing, a branch that bears 
few leaves, and no fruit. Are there not many such 
churches among us ? 

To such churches permit me to offer a few words of 
advice. In the first place, brethren, let me urge you to 
rely upon yourselves, under Grod, and cease to look 
abroad for help. It is this looking abroad for what you 
probably have at home that has been a fatal stumbling- 
block in the way of your progress. There are gifts for 
edification among you, if you will only look after them 



234 PRAYER AND CONFERENCE MEETINGS 

and employ them. Christ does not plant barren vines 
in his vineyard. When you were constituted a church, 
he meant that you should increase, having seed within 
yourselves. Or, if you have neglected to cultivate the 
gifts which he bestowed, until they have been lost, he 
has still gifts in abundance in reserve. Pray ye the 
Lord of the harvest, and he will send forth laborers into 
his harvest. Instead of imploring the aid of missionary 
societies and conventions, and sending an annual letter 
to the Association complaining of your weakness, go 
directly to the Master and ask him for all that you 
need. The cause is his. He came from heaven to earth 
to establish it, and now reigns supreme, having all 
power in heaven and earth to carry it forward. If you 
really want a minister, he will provide one for you, and 
more likely from among yourselves than from anywhere 
else. If you really desire to advance his cause, you 
have only to ask him, and he will bestow upon you all 
that you need. But you must ask in faith, and your 
actions must correspond w r ith your prayers. You must 
show by your conduct that the cause of Christ is nearer 
to your hearts than any thing else, and that you are 
determined to know- nothing among men in comparison 
with Jesus Christ and him crucified. 

Let me entreat you, then, to meet weekly for prayer 
and conference. Among many of you this duty has 
probably been neglected for several years. Hence you 
hardly know each other as Christian brethren. Your 
Christian affections have grown cold. If you have a 
covenant meeting once a month, but few attend it, and 
you are almost strangers to each other. Meet together, 
then, more frequently, and let your hearts flow together 



ENCOURAGING MINISTERIAL TALENT. 235 

oftener in prayer to God. Encourage every brother to 
speak for the Saviour, and to call upon sinners to repent 
and believe. You will soon find that, by exercise, your 
gifts for public address will improve, and others as well 
as yourselves will take a deeper interest in attending 
your meetings. Soon, it may be, you will find not one 
but several brethren who may become useful as licen- 
tiates or pastors. 

When you see any talent which promises to be useful, 
encourage it. Assist your brethren who may give any 
indications of power in public address, by your prayers 
and counsel. Strive to build them up for Christ. Aid 
them in procuring books, and enable them to give them- 
selves more and more to the work. At the very time 
when you are inquiring whether God has not called a 
brother to labor in public in his cause, probably the 
same inquiry is pressing upon his mind also, and he is 
looking forward in deep depression at the possible obli- 
gation that may be laid upon him. He needs your 
sympathy, and counsel, and encouragement. Let him 
see and feel that he has them. This trembling and 
self-diffident brother may be a chosen vessel whom the 
Master has appointed to some important service in his 
church. 

I know very well that in sparsely settled neighbor- 
hoods, where roads are bad, and traveling inconvenient, 
it is difficult, and in fact almost impossible, for brethren 
to meet all in one place as often as might be desirable. 
In such cases, it may be better to have frequent neigh- 
borhood meetings, in the various districts occupied by 
the members of the church. A school-house or a room 
in a private house will furnish all the accommodation 



236 SERVICES ON THE SABBATH. 

desired, and then women and children may be able to 
attend, who otherwise would have little opportunity of 
enjoying this means of spiritual edification. 

I have thus far referred to meetings for spiritual im- 
provement on week days. I now turn to the Sabbath. 
Suffer me to urge you never to omit meeting for wor- 
ship on G-od's holy day. Do not be satisfied with merely 
meeting for worship when you have a minister present. 
This is idolizing the ministry, not honoring it. You 
gather together, not to meet the minister, but the 
Saviour. He has not said, "When you come with a 
minister I am with you, but, Wherever two or three 
are met in my name, there am I in the midst of you. 
You can be profited as truly, if Christ be there, without 
a minister as with one. It is very desirable to have an 
under-shepherd, but if God has not gratified you in this 
respect, he may answer your prayers by being in a special 
manner present with you himself. Meet then with your 
families, whether you have a minister with you or not. 
Let some brother who, in your more private meetings 
has shown an adaptedness for this service, take the lead 
of the meeting. You can spend the time profitably in 
prayer, singing, reading the Scriptures, and exhorta- 
tion. If every brother would, before the meeting, direct 
his attention prayerfully to some passage of Scripture, 
and when you come together would give his brethren 
the result of his reflections, the service would not lack 
interest. If you prefer a sermon, any brother may be 
called upon to read one. President Davies' are the best 
that I remember for this purpose. Plain, earnest, pun- 
gent, practical sermons are the best for such occasions, 
as they, in fact, are for any other. In this manner, 



DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 237 

meeting statedly, and having a little concert with each 
other beforehand, you may readily conduct a service to 
mutual edification, and greatly to the advancement of 
the interests of godliness in your neighborhood. 

I have said that your private meetings present an 
opportunity for observing the gifts of the several mem- 
bers of the church. The meeting on the Sabbath, when 
no minister is with you, is still better adapted to this 
purpose. Talent, of any kind, always shows itself when 
there is a demand for it. Give men an opportunity to 
speak for God, let occasions arise in which men feel that 
they are called upon to bear witness for him, and lips 
will be opened which have long been sealed in silence. 
You may thus find that what you have been asking for 
from man, in vain, God has sent you from among your 
own brethren. Some brother whom you have wholly 
overlooked, may be the very man whom God has chosen 
to minister to you in spiritual things. 

But you are not able to employ all the time of a 
brother, if you desire him to serve you in the ministry. 
You are, however, able to pay him for all the time 
which he devotes to your service. Pay him, then, hon- 
estly, for this portion of his time. You have no right to 
ask that he should impoverish himself to serve you for 
nothing. If his labors are blessed, you will soon require 
more of his time, and you should pay him for all you 
require. When Dr. Baldwin first commenced his min- 
istry, he was employed in carrying on a saw-mill. He 
was also pastor of the church to which he belonged. 
He was frequently called from home to perform minis- 
terial service in different parts of the town and vicinity, 
and his business suffered. All he asked of his brethren 



238 DR. BALDWIN. 

was, that they would pay the wages of the workman 
whom he was obliged to employ in his absence. This 
they often promised, but never performed. When he 
had left his family in straitened circumstances, and 
could with difficulty meet his traveling expenses in aid- 
ing some destitute church, a wealthy brother would 
sometimes most affectionately squeeze his hand, and 
say, with great cordiality, " Thank you, thank you, 
Elder Baldwin, such men as you will never want," and 
having said this, turn away, leaving him to find a rest- 
ing place where he could. Dr. Baldwin was tenderly 
attached to his people, and to the region where he min- 
istered. A family was growing up around him, and the 
pressure grew year by year more severe. He was called 
to the situation in Boston, which he filled with such 
admirable success, and removed to that city. It is no 
disparagement to the Baptist ministers of New Hamp- 
shire to say, that thus far, Thomas Baldwin has there 
had no successor. A little more thoughtfulness might 
probably have retained him there. What changes 
would our churches in that State have seen, had Dr. 
Baldwin spent the last twenty-five years of his life 
among them! 

Remember both of these things. What your minis- 
ter does for you deserves remuneration, and he should 
receive it. It must be paid for by some one ; must he 
pay for it, or will you do it ? And thus, if you invite a 
minister from abroad, you will, of course, treat him 
kindly and hospitably, but this is not all, His time is 
his money; it is spent for you, and traveling is expen- 
sive. See that in neither of these respects he is a suf- 
ferer in consequence of doing you good. 



PREACHING AND MANUAL LABOR. 239 

Do not be ashamed of having a minister who is em- 
ployed a part of his time on his farm, or in his workshop. 
The Master w r as the son of a carpenter, and it is reason- 
able to suppose that he worked at his father's occupa- 
tion. The apostles were many of them fishermen. 
Paul wrought at tent-making in the shop of Aquila. 
Honest labor is everywhere honorable, and that it is 
honorable to combine it with the ministry, these in- 
stances abundantly prove. In later days, Bunyan was 
a tinker, and Carey a shoemaker, and both worked at 
their trades until the duties of the ministry absorbed 
all their energies. At this many will smile. When 
Carey was going out to India, Sidney Smith held him 
up to scorn and ridicule, because a cobbler was leaving 
England to convert the Hindoos. Yet, which is now 
and ever will be the object of universal admiration, the 
reverend jester, or the cobbler missionary ? Yet, let me 
not be misunderstood. A man is no better fitted for 
the ministry because he labors w r ith his hands. The 
work is open to all, and every variety of occupation may 
be called to engage in it. I only say that it is as truly 
open to men of one avocation, as another. The Lord re- 
quires every variety of talent and culture in his vineyard, 
acd some of his choicest gifts to his church have been 
bestow r ed upon men w T hom the world would have rejected 
with contempt. 

Once more I would say, while you are destitute of a 
pastor, take eveiy means in your power to secure the 
assistance of ministering brethren in your vicinity. Have 
the ordinances of the gospel statedly observed, and 
never, if possible, omit them. This will be frequently 
more easily accomplished than is supposed. Use a 



240 OBJECTIONS WHICH MAY BE URGED. 

minister kindly. Make your place a Christian home. 
Neglect not his comfort, but do not act as if he came 
merely to eat and drink. Treat him as a brother be- 
loved, and show that you are earnestly engaged with 
him in building up the kingdom of the Kedeemer. 
Make your church an attractive place for the best and 
holiest men, and the best and holiest men will love to 
visit you, and by every means in their power to build 
up the cause of Christ among you. Do thus, and the 
small nation will soon become a strong people. 



xxxix. 






OBJECTION, WE ARE FEW AND WEAK, ETC. — WOULD THIS JUSTIFY YOUR 
COURSE IN CONVERTS FROM HEATHENISM, OR IN THE TIMES OF THE 
APOSTLES ? — THIS EXCUSE SAVORS OF PRIDE, NOT HUMILITY. — EXAMPLE 
OF THE CHURCH IN HAMBURG. 

Ik my last paper I endeavored to set forth what 
seemed to me the duty of Baptist disciples of Christ, 
when they were few in number, in villages or small set- 
tlements throughout our country. To the views which 
I have presented, I know that many objections may be 
urged, but they may all be summed up in one. We 
are few and weak, and nothing can be done by a little 
handful, in the midst of a multitude who profess no re- 
ligion at all, or if they profess any, it is in many re- 
spects at variance with our belief. 

To this I reply, in the first place, suppose that as 
many persons as you now number had been converted 
from heathenism and were living in Kangoon, Bassein, 
or Toungoo, and that they adopted your principles. 



THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 241 

They would say, There are hut few of us among hun- 
dreds of thousands of idolaters. What can we do to re- 
form a nation ? We will therefore never meet to wor- 
ship God ; we will not care to have it known that we 
are the disciples of Christ. What should we think of 
such converts ? What would they be worth to the 
cause of Christ ? Their light, hidden under a bushel, 
would soon expire. Yielding no seed, they would soon 
perish, and the heathen world would be none the better 
for their existence. Now, I ask, in what respect do the 
disciples of Christ on one side of the globe differ from 
those on the other ? What would be treachery to the 
cause of Christ in Burmah, is treachery in the United 
States. We can not answer it to the Master if we hide 
our light under a bushel. We can not answer it to the 
souls of our perishing fellow-men, if we do not, by our 
precept and practice, hold forth to them the word of 
life, and point them to the Lamb of God who taketh 
away the sins of the world. 

Again, how was it in the times of the apostles ? 
When the ministers of Christ went at first among the 
heathen, had they hearkened to such objections as 
yours, where would now have been the church of 
Christ ? Had the one hundred and twenty in the up- 
per chamber looked abroad upon the world, and con- 
sidered the power, and wealth, and learning, and preju- 
dice, and avarice, and vice which were arrayed against 
them, much more reasonably than any of us, they 
might have concluded that any attempt to convert the 
world was useless. They might have resolved to enjoy 
their religion by themselves, not meeting together nor 
exposing themselves to remark for the singularity of 

11 



242 EFFECT OF PERSECUTION. 

their behavior. But did they do this ? No, they 
held to the prayer and conference-meeting. " They 
continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." 
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, instead 
of scattering abroad and going up with the multitude 
to the temple to unite in the Jewish festival, they were 
found ally with one accord, in one place. It was then 
that the Holy Ghost descended, and before the sun of 
that day had set, u there were added unto them about 
three thousand souls." This was worth coming to- 
gether for. And were there more such gatherings, 
there would be more similar outpourings of the Holy 
Spirit. 

And when those who were scattered abroad went 
everywhere preaching the Word, into whatsoever city 
or town they entered, they were at first the only dis- 
ciples of Christ within it. They, however, at once pro- 
claimed their message. God gave it success. A few 
were converted. No sooner were men converted than 
the wrath of Jew and Gentile was aroused, and the 
ministers were obliged to flee for their lives to another 
city. They left, in every place where they ministered, 
a little band of disciples, perhaps eight or ten in num- 
ber, as sheep among wolves. But what course was pur- 
sued by these few converts among hundreds of thou- 
sands of idolaters ? They held forth the word of life. 
Amid persecution even unto death, they proclaimed 
Christ and the resurrection, and the Lord added to 
them daily of such as should be saved. 

From these small beginnings arose the churches by 
whom the gospel was carried to every part of the then 
known world. In the great marts of trade, the centers 



THE WOKK OF THE SPIRIT. 243 

of influence, on the shores of the Mediterranean, the 
apostle Paul continued longer. He abode for a year 
and a half at Corinth, and two years at Ephesus, be- 
cause from these great cities the word of God could be 
carried to every town in the interior. So far, however, 
was this from his usual custom, that a vision from the 
Lord was necessary to induce him to tarry at Corinth. 
Such was the manner in which the gospel gained its 
wonderful triumphs at first. It was by the labors, and 
preaching, and example of little bands of two or three, 
or ten or twelve, planted in the midst of the heathen, 
from whom the word of God sounded out into all the 
surrounding country. How could it be otherwise ? 
This was the way which Christ has chosen, and it was, 
as it ever must be, mighty. 

But it is still said, What can we, a poor feeble band, 
do amid the multitude who fear not God ? This 
question seems to savor of humility, but it is, in fact, 
the offspring of most unchristian pride. He who makes 
it must suppose that the work is his own, that man can 
accomplish it, and therefore the greater the number of 
men engaged, the more easily will the work be effected. 
Were this true, there would be force in the objection. 
I ask, then, How many men does it take to convert a 
single soul ? If ten can not do it, can twenty, or a 
hundred, or a hundred thousand ? You reply, No ; it 
is the work of the Spirit of God exclusively. Christ 
alone by his Spirit can convert, renew, and sanctify the 
soul, and make it meet to be an inheritor with" the 
saints in light. The work of converting souls, and of 
casting down the strongholds, does not therefore de- 
pend on the number of disciples meeting together, but 



244 PROGRESS OF -THE TRUTH 

upon the presence of Christ. And how many must 
meet together in order to expect the presence of Christ ? 
He himself has specified the precise number. Wher- 
ever two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them. Two believers, then, 
met in the name of Christ, may plead the promise as 
effectually as two thousand. If only two meet together 
and Christ is there, all power in heaven and on earth is 
present, and in such a company where is there place for 
unbelief, despondency, or despair ? 

All this has been practically exemplified in every age 
of the history of the church. One of the latest, as w r ell 
as one of the most remarkable, is the case of our breth- 
ren in Germany. They numbered at first precisely 
seven souls. They were in a great city given over to 
the love of wealth, as most great cities are, and in a 
nation of formalists sternly opposed to evangelical 
religion, especially that form of evangelical religion 
which we profess. They, nevertheless, were consti- 
tuted into a church, and as true disciples, undertook 
the work of converting Germany to vital and spiritual 
religion. They gave themselves to the work. They 
met together for prayer on week days, and for the wor- 
ship of God on the Sabbath. They called in their 
neighbors and friends to hear the word of God. The 
Lord began to add to their number. When men were 
converted, for fear of the authorities they were obliged 
to perform the ordinance of baptism in retired places, 
in the darkness of the night. The work needed more 
laborers ; they prayed to the Lord of the harvest, and 
ministerial gifts were poured out upon them. The 
church at Hamburg was soon able to send laborers into 



IN GERMANY. 245 

the neighboring towns. In these, also, churches were 
established, partaking in rich measure of the spirit of 
the church from which they sprang. No sooner was a 
little band of believers gathered together, than they, at 
once, commenced the work of evangelizing not only 
their own town, but the towns in their vicinity. Gath- 
ering strength in their progress, they have already ad- 
vanced to the borders of Kussia ; and it may be almost 
said that they are filling Germany with their doctrine. 

But, in the mean time, the enemy was not idle. 
Persecution at an early date arose in Hamburg. The 
pastor was thrown into prison, their place of worship 
was closed, and their enemies believed that thus the 
movement was permanently quashed. But it was not 
so ; for God was in the midst of it. The pastor 
preached from the grated windows of the prison, and 
the brethren, driven from their sanctuary, met in pri- 
vate houses, so that instead of one, sixteen places of wor- 
ship were established. The pastor was at length released. 
Soon after occurred the great fire at Hamburg, and then 
the self-denying charity of these poor disciples so com- 
pletely disarmed their oppressors, that persecution died 
of very shame, and they have not since been molested. 

Not so, however, in other places. Wherever these 
brethren went preaching the Word, they were met by 
the envenomed opposition of the priesthood, and, I 
regret to say, of a Protestant priesthood. They were 
imprisoned, fined, maltreated, and driven from place 
to place, but they went everywhere preaching the 
Word. Every church, in addition to its pastor, had 
its little band of licentiates, whom it sent out, Sab- 
bath after Sabbath, to carry the Word to neighboring 



246 THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 

towns. The little one has become a thousand. From, 
these seven disciples in Hamburg, there have sprung 
up a multitude of churches, and thousands of disciples 
of Jesus. Thousands have emigrated to this country, 
and have established flourishing churches in the West. 
And, in all this work, the church has always supplied 
its own wants. The gifts which were needed were 
found to exist in the midst of her, and these gifts were, 
for the most part, bestowed upon men in common life, 
mechanics, journeymen, brethren whose power consisted 
in the spirit that resided in them, and not in any 
culture which could be bestowed by the schools. 

Nor is this all. The question that was continually 
presented in these cases of persecution, was this : What 
are the inalienable rights of conscience, and what right 
has civil government to interfere with religious belief ? 
This question has been pressed upon the attention of 
thoughtful men in every part of Germany. The 
personal views of the King of Prussia are understood 
to have become favorable to freedom. At length the 
Chevalier Bunsen, one of the ablest and most enlight- 
ened statesmen in Europe, has pleaded with irresistible 
power the cause of religious liberty, and has spread 
before the world the injustice suffered by our defense- 
less brethren. Behold, how great a matter a little fire 
Mndleth ! But it must be fire from the altar, fanned 
by the breath of the Spirit. The seed planted by the 
Master can never die. 

Here, then, is the result of the Christian labors of 
seven poor disciples of Jesus — the result only up to the 
present time. To what it will spread in the future, 
G-od only knows. Had they lived as hundreds of sevens 



METHODIST CLASS-MEETINGS. 247 

of our brethren are living, where had been the evan- 
gelical churches and the religious liberty of Germany ? 
The same men, acting on the same principles, settled 
in any city of the West, would have made every village 
beyond the mountains vocal with the name of the 
Kedeemer. Brethren, who of us will follow their 
example ? 

We can do what others are doing. The Methodist 
class-meeting is an institution specially designed to 
gather together the scattered members of that com- 
munion into an organization that shall be the nucleus 
of a church. It is an admirable system, and has been 
of infinite service in developing ministerial talent, and 
in extending the cause of Methodism in our country. 
It has done much more than this. In ten thousand 
instances it has kept alive the flame of piety, where it 
would otherwise have been extinguished, and trained 
up thousands and tens of thousands for the heavenly 
Jerusalem, We do not need the name, or the form, 
but may we not have the essential thing with all its 
attendant benefits ? 



XL. 

CHURCHES IN CITIES. — THEIR SPECIAL NEED OF OPPORTUNITY TO LABOR 
FOR CHRIST. — ITS EFFECT UPON INDIVIDUAL PIETY. 

I come now to the case of churches in cities, and 
would respectfully present the application of the law 
of Christ to them. They are, in comparison with the 
churches in the country, few in number, and they con- 
tain but a small portion of our entire membership. 



248 city churches: 

They are, however, of an importance which is but 
imperfectly indicated by their number of communi- 
cants. They are composed, in a considerable degree, 
of the wealthy and the more highly educated. They 
have in their power vast means of doing good, means 
which, if improperly used, must work extensive evil. 
The manners, the maxims, the opinions, the practice 
of cities, are always rapidly carried into the surround- 
ing country. They are the centers of influence, by 
which the character of the circumference is determined. 
The condition of such churches is peculiar, and 
worthy of special consideration. Wealth is accumu- 
lated in cities with great rapidity. Temptation here 
assumes every variety of form, and clothes itself in its 
most alluring dress. Secresy in wrong-doing may be 
secured much more successfully than in the country. 
Where human beings are collected in so large masses, 
the power of public opinion becomes vastly more in- 
tense and omnipresent. The fact that other men do 
so, becomes a justification for almost any moral ob- 
liquity. The natural love of wealth is inflamed by 
emulation, and the apparent necessity of following the 
example of others. Expensive habits can be indulged 
only by excessive gains, and when large gains are in- 
dispensable, the means by which they must be secured 
are not apt to be scrutinized, if they can only find 
shelter under the customs of the trade. The lust for 
political power is here most rampant, as here there arc 
dispensed its most coveted prizes. In every department 
of life, in every grade of society, the whisper of the 
Arch Tempter is unceasingly heard, " All these things 
will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me/' 



THEIR NECESSITIES. 249 

In such a moral condition as this, the most active 
antagonistic moral and religious forces are absolutely 
necessary, in order to guard the soul from that sen- 
suality and worldliness which tends directly to final 
apostacy. The most direct and pungent appeals to 
the conscience, the clearest scriptural exhibition of the 
evidences of piety, the most discriminating delineations 
of unconscious hypocrisy, the plainest setting forth of 
easy besetting sins, the most fearless exposure of the 
various forms of prevailing vice, the loftiest views of 
Christian attainment, the glorious hopes which animate 
the pure in heart, the crown of righteousness which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to all who love his 
appearing — these truths, and truths like them, need to 
be held up before the eye of the believer, if we would 
guard him from the moral perils by which he is here 
environed. That the circumstances which surround a 
city pulpit are peculiarly favorable for the earnest 
exhibition of these momentous realities, I will neither 
affirm nor deny. 

But, in order to insure our spiritual progress, it is 
necessary not only that these truths be believed, but 
that they be acted upon ; and that, in fact, they form 
the basis of our practical, every-day character. It is 
not enough that we believe that there is a world of 
ineffable glory, to be secured only by strenuous moral 
effort — we must, individually, make that effort. It is 
not enough to believe that we must take up the cross 
and follow Christ — we must feel the pressure of that 
cross upon our own shoulders, and plant our own feet 
in the footprints made by the Son of God. If we act 

11* 



250 WANTS OF CITY CHRISTIANS, 

not thus, our belief is liable to work our undoing. 
Nothing conduces more to insensibility of conscience, 
than the distinct knowledge of duty, while we neglect 
to perform it. Hence, evidently, a Christian in a city 
requires, above all men, the means of carrying out to 
their practical results the truths which he believes. 
Without this his principles will become absolutely in- 
operative, and believing xill the solemn revelations of 
the New Testament, he will be living without God in 
the world, and worse than all, he will become contented 
to live thus. He needs to retire to his closet for 
prayer ; but he needs also to meet his brethren for 
prayer ; he needs the opportunity in public to avow 
himself a follower of Christ, and to call on other men 
to follow his example. It is absolutely necessary to his 
growth in grace, nay, to the preservation of his piety, 
that he be seen, on all possible occasions, testifying for 
Christ, and doing those very things, despised and 
scorned though they be, which Christ has made the 
duty of all his disciples. His character must be 
formed, and his life must be governed by the principle 
of direct, positive, and unyielding antagonism to a 
world which lieth in wickedness. The ice must be 
broken, the barrier must be passed. He must be 
crucified to the world, and the world unto him. The 
line of separation between the man that feareth God 
and the man that feareth him not must be broad and 
visible, or the disciple of Christ, borne down by the 
incessant pressure of worldliness, will be swept away 
by the current, and find himself, in fact, in the com- 
pany of those who deny his Master, and it is well if he 
be not in sympathy with them also. 



PRACTICE OF CITY CHRISTIANS. 251 

All this every one sees. But as our churches are now 
constituted, what opportunities are presented for this 
practical manifestation of Christianity ? Every religious 
service is devolved upon the minister, and he is hourly 
sinking under it. The merchant rises early on Monday 
morning, and hurries to his counting-room, the mechanic 
to his place of business, the lawyer to his office. He 
hears through the day not a word on any subject except 
gain and politics. He returns home in the evening 
wearied and harassed, but must participate in the round 
of amusement which the customs of society impose 
upon his family. He arises in the morning from unquiet 
sleep, to spend another day in the same manner. On 
Sunday he attends the worship of the sanctuary, his 
mind recovers a little from the intense pressure, of world- 
liness, and it may be that in the evening a beam of 
light breaks through the cloud, and discovers to him for 
a moment the nature of the life that he is leading. On 
Monday morning the impression is, however, to a con- 
siderable degree, obliterated, and he plunges headlong 
into the current of trade, with the same heedlessness as 
before. The arrangements of the household hardly 
allow of family devotion. The demands of business 
sadly interfere w r ith private prayer. The disciple of 
Christ gives occasionally a little money to the cause of 
religion, regretting that the expensiveness of his family 
renders it impossible for him to do more. Such is his 
life from year to year, unless sickness or other calamity 
arouses him from this stupor. He awakes, calls upon 
God, disentangles himself for awhile from the world, 
but soon again he yields to the pressure, and things go 
on as they were wont. I ask, Does piety such as this 



252 A REMEDY SUGGESTED. 

possess the vitality necessary to resist the moral con- 
tagion of a great city ? 

What, then, is the remedy ? Is it not evident that 
it must be found in furnishing, for private members, the 
opportunity for laboring more actively for God, and in 
rendering our churches earnest and zealous associations 
for the promotion of Christianity ? Our meetings for 
prayer must be multiplied, and these should be con- 
ducted mainly by private members of the church. Our 
dwellings should be frequently opened for such meet- 
ings, rather than for routs and fashionable entertain- 
ments. Every brother should be encouraged to speak 
at such meetings in exhortation, in encouragement, in 
warning, or in exposition and application of the word 
of God. The church itself should earnestly inquire for 
places in the city where the destitution is the sorest, 
and where those are to be found in the greatest num- 
bers," who, in their homely garb, would be ashamed to 
appear in the temples commonly erected for the worship 
of Jesus of Nazareth. These places the church should 
supply with Sabbath-schools and religious services, not 
by employing here and there a city missionary, but from 
its own members. It should be the primary object of 
every church to cultivate all the talent for this service 
which it possesses, and employ it systematically in the 
work of evangelization. There is scarcely a city church 
among us, which could not furnish a large number of 
intelligent Christian men, abundantly competent to this 
work. Many of them would labor without a license. 
Others should receive a license, and they might, with 
great profit both to themselves and others, frequently 
occupy any of our pulpits on the Sabbath, while, on the 



DR. SHARP. 253 

other days of the week, they devoted themselves to secu- 
lar avocations. From these would arise a large body 
of efficient pastors, men whose talents were manifestly 
designed for extensive usefulness, and to whom the min- 
istry became so attractive as to disengage them from 
every other pursuit. Such a man was the late Dr. Sharp, 
whose praise is in all the churches. While engaged in 
mercantile business, he believed that he might be use- 
ful in preaching Christ, without charge, to the destitute 
in the suburbs of New York. He was licensed by the 
church to which he belonged, and for some time labored 
successfully in this manner. It soon became evident 
that the pulpit, and not the counting-room, was the 
place in which he could most effectually serve the Mas- 
ter, and after spending some time under the instruction 
of the late Dr. Staughton, he commenced that career 
of usefulness which has endeared his name to the whole 
church of Grod. 

The effect of such a course upon the religious char- 
acter of individual members, need not be here spoken 
of. The man who had spent his Sabbaths in calling 
men to repentance, could hardly fail to testify for Christ 
ou the other days of the week. By a large and more 
thoughtful reading of the Scriptures, his mind would be 
more deeply imbued with divine truth. Communion 
with God would render the pursuits of worldly men dis- 
tasteful. He would walk through the midst of tempta- 
tion unharmed, protected by an invisible arm, for he 
that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

Could these ideas prevail, it is manifest that a new 
era would open upon our churches. Every church would 



ENTIKE DEVOTION TO CHRIST. 

become a living fountain, diffusing on every side the 
waters of salvation. Instead of looking to organizations 
polluted by political ambition — instead of relying on 
policemen and material force, the disciples of Christ, 
trusting to his aid, would go forth to regenerate the 
world around them. And they would do it. The wil- 
derness and the solitary place would be glad for them, 
and the desert would rejoice and blossom like the rose. 

But it will be said that there is and must be a division 
of labor in this work ; some must accumulate wealth to 
support those who give up themselves to the ministra- 
tion of the gospel. I ask, Is this so ? Is one man to 
give up himself ^ and another his ivealih, and another 
his love of pleasure to Christ, while each withholds the 
remainder ? Is this the piety of the gospel ? Christ 
gave himself wholly for us, and should not we give up 
our whole selves to him ? So Saul was very jealous for 
the Lord of Hosts, but the bleating of the sheep and 
oxen revealed his hypocrisy. We may be sure that the 
man who gives up but a part to Christ, always reserves 
for himself all that he loves best, and yields to the 
Saviour only the remainder But you say, We are ac- 
quiring property for Christ. Can you, my brother, say 
that to him ? Does he not know better ? If you are 
accumulating for him, you are spending for yourselves, 
and leave him only the fragments. My dear brother, 
the word of God is quick and powerful, a discerner of 
the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

But it may be said, men will not do as you recom- 
mend. It may be so, but what then ? What becomes 
of the cause of Christ ? Who is prepared to suffer the 
punishments of disobedience ? Indications are not 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE MINISTRY. 255 

few, that judgments for our sins are rapidly approach- 
ing. Who of us shall stand when God riseth up, and 
who shall answer when he appeareth ? If this is the way 
to obey Christ, the only way in which Christianity can 
exert its legitimate effect on the minds of men, and we 
say we can not and will not pursue it, we surrender 
Christ to his enemies, we give up the contest, and yield 
the victory to the powers of darkness. Sinner, redeem- 
ed by the blood of Christ, are you prepared to do this ? 



XLI. 

MEANS TO BE USED TO IMPROVE THE WHOLE MINISTRY. — THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARIES. — COLLEGES. — ACADEMIES. 

In my preceding pajoers I have endeavored to show 
the manner in which the ministry may be increased in 
number. It seems to me to have been the way devised 
by the Master. It has always proved eminently suc- 
cessful. The evil which we complain of is universal. 
It must arise from some universal error, either in our 
theory or practice, or both. It can not be removed but 
by a change in that theory or practice. I have en- 
deavored to point out the change which seems to be 
required. We must return to the theory and practice 
which prevailed when we had more ministers than 
churches. In no other manner can we hope to make 
progress, or to perform that part in the conversion of 
the world which the Master has assigned to us. 

I hope it will be admitted, that by the use of the 
means which I have suggested, the number of ministers 
would be greatly increased, may I not say, so much 



256 MATERIAL FOR THE MINISTRY 

increased as to be adequate to the supply of our wants. 
It will be a ministry composed of men of different 
ages, coming from various occupations in life, and 
of great diversity of intellectual culture. They will 
all agree, however, in many particulars. They will 
have entered the ministry because they believe that 
the Holy Spirit has called them to this office, and their 
brethren will have come to the same conclusion respect- 
ing them. Most of them will have given themselves to 
the work at the cost of personal sacrifice, and a large 
portion of them will, by early labor, have attained to 
vigor of constitution, firmness of nerve, and a power 
of overcoming difficulties, which hot-house cultivation 
never confers. I ask, What better material for a min- 
istry could be found than a body of just such men ? 

I come now to the second part of my work. I pro- 
posed to show, first, how the number of our ministers 
could be increased ; and secondly, how their efficiency 
could be promoted. I proceed to the second considera- 
tion. Suppose that annually six or eight hundred of 
such ministers are given to us ; how shall we, so far as we 
can, make them able ministers of the New Testament ? 

Before answering this question, let us determine 
what is the object to be aimed at. Let us look at this 
question calmly, as reasonable men, capable of forming 
an opinion for ourselves, and without turning to the 
precedents set before us by other denominations. Is it 
our object merely to carry to a higher point of educa- 
tion, one in twenty of these brethren, leaving all the 
remainder without sympathy or aid ? Shall we say to 
brethren who pant for knowledge, but who are unable 
to devote more than one, two, or three years to prepar- 



AIDING THOSE WHO ARE CALLED. 257 

ation, " Go and study for five or six years, and then we 
will aid you ;" and by this decision shut them out from 
all aid whatsoever? Or shall we say to brethren whose 
time is thus limited by the providence of God, " If you 
will promise to go to an academy, and study two years 
with boys, and then go through college, and add to 
this a three years' course at a seminary, we will assist 
you ; but if you will not or can not do this, we have 
nothing to say to you ?" Is this right, is it wise, is it 
kind, can it be acceptable to the Master ? Is this 
really zeal for educating the Baptist ministry ? 

We take a different view of this subject. We urge 
the necessity of giving to every brother whom God has 
called to the ministry, as large an amount of culture as 
the circumstances in which he is placed render ex- 
pedient or practicable. We should look upon the 
farmer or mechanic, who gives evidence that he has 
been called of God to the ministry, with just the same 
respect, and extend to him the hand of fellowship as cor- 
dially as if he had spent his w r hole life in study, and bore 
in his hand a dozen diplomas. We should more cheer- 
fully aid him than the other, for the simple reason that 
his need is more pressing. I w r ill not, however, pursue 
this question any further. I do not conceive that there 
can exist, among brethren at large, more than one 
opinion concerning it. 

The question before us, then, is, In what manner 
shall we proceed, so as best to increase the usefulness 
of the whole mass of ministerial talent ? 

I need say but little of Theological Seminaries. 
They have their utility ; but they educate so few that 
they can affect, but in a small degree, the multitude 



258 NEED OF INCREASED EFFICIENCY 

whom we wish to benefit. Besides, they are under the 
special guardianship of learned and able brethren, who 
are thoroughly acquainted with the subject of educa- 
tion — who have made theological education their pe- 
culiar study, and have arranged their courses of in- 
struction with special reference to their view of the 
wants of our own denomination. Of such institutions, 
so conducted, it becomes us to speak with becoming 
reverence. If, however, a suggestion in respect to them 
might be made without presumption, I would ask, 
Coald they not be rendered more efficient ? By the 
tables already referred to, they graduate annually 
about one student and a half to each officer of in- 
struction. Could not this proportion be somewhat ex- 
ceeded ? The labor of teaching such classes can not 
be oppressive ; might not other courses, adapted to 
other classes of students, be introduced ? So long as 
our seminaries admit none but those who have pursued 
a collegiate course, or its equivalent, their number of 
students must be small, and the labor of instructors 
not burdensome. Might they not add something to 
their courses of instruction ? 

If it might be done without offense, I would ask, 
Might not more direct effort be exerted to make 
preachers — I say preachers, in distinction from philol- 
ogists, translators, professors, teachers, and writers on 
theology ? Other professional schools aim to render 
men able in the practice of their several professions. 
The law school is satisfied if it makes good lawyers. 
The medical school is satisfied if it makes good phy- 
sicians. Why should not the theological school aim 
more simply at making good and effective preach- 



IN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 259 

ers ? Men need instruction and practice in the every- 
day duties of the ministry. They should acquire the 
power — and it is a great power — of unwritten, earnest, 
effective speech. 

I rejoice to perceive that all the changes in our 
seminaries are in the right direction. In the cata- 
logue of Newton Seminary it is said that the course is 
designed for those who have passed through a collegiate 
course, or what is equivalent to it ; they nevertheless 
add that other students are welcomed to their instruc- 
tions, and arrangements are made for their especial 
improvement. I have not the catalogue at hand, but 
this is, I think, the substance of the announcement. 
In the Institution at Fairmount, Cincinnati, as it has 
been stated in the public papers, the course of instruc- 
tion, in the main, coincides with the suggestions which 
I have offered. Students are made to acquire practice 
in preaching, and candidates of a much greater diver- 
sity of acquisition than usual, are admitted to the 
Institution. All these are hopeful indications. Let 
the principles on which these changes proceed be car- 
ried out to their results, and the usefulness of these 
institutions will be indefinitely increased. 

But besides theological schools, we have a large 
number of colleges and academies endowed by our 
brethren, which ought to render efficient aid in the im- 
provement of the ministry. By following the example 
of others in founding schools of learning, while our in- 
tention has been to benefit the ministry, we have con- 
trived to render them, in the least possible degree, 
capable of accomplishing our object. We have, with 
one exception, adopted in all its strictness, the old 



260 MODIFICATION OF STUDIES 

academic course, which prescribes a fixed succession of 
certain studies for four years, and unless a man pursues 
the preparatory routine, and enters for the whole course, 
he can derive from them but little advantage. Thus, a 
person who wishes to study such branches as would be 
of service to him in preaching, and has neither time nor 
means for doing more, is effectually excluded from their 
benefits. Now it is manifest that a college intended to 
benefit the ministry, should conform its arrangements 
to the actual condition of the ministry. Our colleges 
should be so constituted that licentiates, to say noth- 
ing of any others, should be enabled to pursue such 
studies as they need, and under the same advantages 
as any other students. To many who are unable to 
pursue the languages and mathematics, a course em- 
bracing physical science, rhetoric, history, intellectual 
and moral philosophy, would be invaluable ; or, if the 
student could not pursue all these courses, he might 
take only such of them as he most needed. The same 
remark applies, in substance, to our high schools. Ar- 
rangements in these seminaries should be made, which 
shall facilitate the education of young men somewhat 
advanced in life. It is not necessary that such men be 
obliged to sit in the school-room and recite with boys 
and children. A young man, who, in obedience to the 
call of God, leaves his occupation for the ministry, has 
trials enough to meet, without being called on to bear 
any that are superfluous. 

But we might, with great reason, go further than 
this. It would be very desirable even to have a course 
of instruction for licentiates especially. Many of our 
institutions have courses arranged especially for teach- 



IN COLLEGES. 261 

ers; and lectures are delivered for their exclusive benefit. 
Why should not the same plan be adopted in behalf of 
licentiates ? Why should not courses of lectures be 
delivered in our colleges on the evidences of religion, on 
the princij)les of interpretation common to all languages, 
on the essential doctrines of revelation, on the rhetoric 
of the pulpit, and on pastoral duty ? I rejoice to see 
that at Waterville College, arrangements are in progress 
for accomplishing this object. I do not know how a col- 
lege could more effectually serve the cause of ministerial 
education, than by devising some such plan. Professors 
who would undertake such a service-, would be abund- 
antly rewarded in their own souls. They need some 
effort of this kind for their own spiritual edification. 
Were this course pursued by all our colleges, it would 
add greatly to our ministerial power. 



XLII. 

OUR GREAT RELIANCE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MINISTRY IS ON 
THE MINISTRY ITSELF. — WHAT A MINISTER MAY DO IN THIS WORK. — 
THE BLESSING THAT WILL FOLLOW SUCH LABOR. 

In my last paper, I attempted to show what could be 
done by the colleges and schools endowed and supported 
by Baptists, for the improvement of the Baptist minis- 
try. It will, of course, be said, in the first place, this 
would render our colleges peculiar. Be it so. Are we 
not able to determine what is best for ourselves ? Are 
we so bound to other examples that we must follow 
them to our own destruction ? A great deal is written 
and spoken on the subject of ministerial education 



262 RELIANCE ON THE MINISTRY 

among us. Platforms thunder with the eloquence 
aroused by the exciting theme, and the agent repeats 
for the hundredth time his narrative of the wants of the 
denomination. It has all resulted in leaving us more 
imperfectly supplied with ministers than before. Let 
us now take up the subject in earnest. Let us make a 
serious, universal effort to accomplish something, and 
then something will be accomplished. 

But it may be said, that if w r e made these provisions, 
no one would avail himself of them. I do not know on 
what authority this should be said, until the experiment 
has been fairly made. I say fairly made. Let the 
instruction be valuable, and adapted to the wants of 
licentiates; let them be treated, not as outsiders who 
should be thankful even for the crumbs that fall from 
the table of science, but as men respectable and re- 
spected ; and let the churches encourage every promis- 
ing young man to improve himself, as far as the provi- 
dence of Grod renders it practicable, and the experiment 
will not fail. If neither of these things can be done, it 
must fail, and it will deserve to fail. 

But it is manifest that if the door of the ministry is 
opened as widely as I have suggested, a part, indeed 
the greater part, of those who enter it, will be composed 
of men so bound by prior engagements that they can 
uot leave home at all ; much less can they leave it for a 
prolonged and expensive residence in some distant part 
of the country. What shall be clone to aid this large 
portion of our brethren, the very men who most of all 
need our aid ? 

Here, as every one must anticipate, I turn at once to 
the ministry. We look to you, brethren, for we have 



FOR MINISTERIAL IMPROVEMENT. 263 

nowhere else to look. You, above all other men, can 
aid in giving efficiency to the ministry of the gospel. 
The work to be done is great. The laborers must be 
many, and they must labor in earnest. The wall must 
be built, and it can never be built, unless every man 
builds over against his own house. 

I say, then, let every minister of Christ, in the first 
place, seek out and bring forward all the talent for the 
ministry which exists in his church, and let him pray, 
and encourage his brethren to pray, that such talent 
may be bestowed in abundant measure. We have the 
promise of Christ that such prayer shall be answered. 
Let us go to him freely, asking in faith, nothing 
doubting. 

Suppose, now, your prayers to be answered, and a 
number of your brethren come forward desiring to labor 
in the work of the ministry. You and your church 
need great wisdom in this matter. See that you act 
wisely, in the fear of God. If you think a brother has 
misjudged his calling, and you obtain no evidence from 
his communications that he is designed by the Master 
for public usefulness, tell him so, kindly and plainly. If 
he is not satisfied, give him longer time for trial, but do" 
not place him in a work to which you do not believe he 
has been called. You are acting for Christ in this 
matter, and you have no right to please either yourselves 
or any other men. 

But having acted according to your best judgment, 
you find, to your joy and rejoicing, that there are sev- 
eral of your brethren whom you believe Christ has called 
to labor in the ministry. You find them exceedingly 
dissimilar in character and circumstances. Can the 



264 VARIETIES OF TALENT. 

same rule reasonably be applied to them all ? Can we 
wisely advise them all to pursue the same course ? They 
range from the age of fifteen to that of twenty-five or 
thirty years. They are of great variety of education 
and culture. Some are under no previous engage- 
ments, others have entered into contracts, and are en- 
gaged in business which can not now be honestly brought 
to a close. It will be a question whether some had not 
better become preachers without giving up the business 
in which they are engaged. Others may appear prom- 
ising, but it is evident that they had better preach for 
a time as licentiates, and wait for the openings of Prov- 
idence to determine the future. Others are young, and 
can devote some years to education. But here a ques- 
tion arises : Have they the kind of talent which will be 
benefited by the ordinary course of education ? Many 
good men go through college without acquiring any ad- 
ditional mental power. They are essentially the same 
men after ten years' study as they were before, with 
greater accuracy, more fearful of making a mistake, but 
with no greater vigor and no higher promise of useful- 
ness than when they commenced. ' And yet such men 
may be useful in no common degree — they are made 
for action and effort, rather than for investigation and 
solitary study. There may be some, again, who exhibit 
talents which point them out as young men whom the 
Master has chosen for labor in which extensive educa- 
tion is manifestly required. It is in the highest degree 
desirable that such brethren should be encouraged to 
pursue a liberal course of education. They may not 
be any more useful than others of their brethren, but 
the Master seems to have designated them for a pecu- 



ENCOURAGING SELF-EFFORT. 265 

liar field of labor, and they should be prepared to enter 
it. Still, if such be the case, it does not follow that 
the church should assume the whole responsibility of 
their education. If they possess unusual talent, they 
are the better able to educate themselves. This they 
should be encouraged to do. They should proceed upon 
the principle that it is a work to be done by themselves, 
and that they will do it as far as they are able. When 
they are in straits, let them always be assisted. Let 
every kind thing be done to aid them in their merit- 
orious undertaking. But let not the responsibility 
be taken from the men themselves. If a young man 
of promise, in this country, desires an education, he 
will be educated. He may not complete his course 
in the same time as another, but he will do it, and 
do it mainly by his own exertions. And this very ex- 
ertion will, in the end, prove the most valuable part of 
his whole education. Yet, let me not be misunder- 
stood. Never let a promising young brother be left to 
sink into despondency. Let him know that if he does 
all he can for himself, he will not be left to fall to the 
ground. And beyond question, the members of his own 
church, those who know him and have an opportunity 
to observe his walk and conversation, are the proper 
persons to aid him. Why should they contribute their 
money to strangers, who shall give it to him, instead 
of giving it to him themselves ? 

But we pass these cases to consider those that remaiu. 
There will probably be a portion of those who manifest 
talent adapted to usefulness, who may grow into the 
successful pastor, or the earnest evangelist, or the faith- 
ful licentiate, but who are chained at home for the 

12 



266 OPPOKTUNITIES FOR 

present, by the providence of God. They may have 
relinquished their studies at boyhood, and have since 
enjoyed small means of improvement. They do not 
know where to begin, or what course to pursue. They 
feel their need of intellectual cultivation, while the 
space between their present position and that which 
they would attain, seems veiled in thick darkness. 
Now, to such persons, a judicious pastor would be of 
the greatest advantage. By free conversation, he 
could learn the bias of each individual, and ascertain 
his precise intellectual position. He might then mark 
out for him the course which he could most profitably 
pursue. In most cases, he could easily refer a brother 
to such teachers in the vicinity as would give him the 
needful assistance. Where this was impossible, he 
might undertake the work himself. This, however, 
would rarely be necessary. There are few districts in 
our country, except the newest settlements, where the 
ordinary branches of a solid English education may not 
be pursued under a competent instructor. A teacher 
by profession, or any other person of generous senti- 
ments, would cheerfully give assistance to a pious man, 
struggling to obtain that knowledge which would render 
him more useful in the work of the ministry. 

But suppose this done, the licentiate requires im- 
portant aid in the special work to which he has given 
himself. Here the older ministering brother may be 
of essential service. He may direct the reading of the 
licentiate, set before him in a connected view the doc- 
trines of the gospel, point out to him the proof-texts, 
show him the objections to them which he has himself 
met, and the best way of answering them, exhibit to 



PURSUING STUDY. 2C7 

him the various subterfuges of the heart, explain to 
him the mode of interpreting the word of God, remove 
the false views which he may have derived from an in- 
cautious reading of the Scriptures, and thus add much 
to his efficiency as a preacher of the gospel. He may 
also teach him to form the plan of a sermon, show him 
the errors of the plans which he presents, hear him 
preach, point out his awkwardness in language and de- 
livery, encourage him in all that is good and acceptable, 
and prune away all that is the reverse. In this way a 
pastor may be of invaluable advantage to his younger 
brother in the ministry. Nor need this be done in the 
form of stiff and formal lectures. It may nearly all be 
accomplished in the way of pleasant fraternal conversa- 
tion, while riding to visit the sick, or while walking to- 
gether to attend a meeting, or working together in the 
garden or the field. Older brethren in the ministry 
have little idea how greatly they might improve their 
juniors by conversation of this kind. One of our most 
distinguished and most eloquent ministers, on whose 
lips the first men in the nation have hung with solemn 
attention, once told me that all the instruction which 
he had ever received in preaching, was contained in a 
single remark addressed to him by an aged father in 
the gospel. "Tell the people/' said he, " precisely what 
they tell you." He had the good sense to understand 
the precept, and reduce it to practice. In visiting his 
people, he remarked the various forms of religious ex- 
perience, in affliction, in joy, in conversion, remorse, 
repentance, faith, doubt, trust, in sickness and health, 
and in the hour of death. He told the people what 
they told him, and hence his preaching was distin- 



268 BENEFIT OF AIDING STUDENTS. 

guished for vivacity, knowledge of the human heart, 
and richness of religious experience, which has been 
rarely excelled. Probably in no six months of his life 
did that old minister ever do so much to advance the 
cause of Christ, as by uttering these few words of ad- 
vice to a younger brother. 

Do not say, brethren, you have not time for this la- 
bor. I know you are pressed with care ; but how could 
you spend your time more profitably to the cause of 
Christ, than in just this manner ? Could you not de- 
vote to it one afternoon in the week ? This, probably, 
would suffice for all that would be demanded. While 
teaching others, you would greatly improve yourself. 
And besides, your younger brother would soon abund- 
antly repay you, by the aid he would render in the dis- 
charge of your duties. What could be more delightful 
than for a minister to have three or four brethren unit- 
ing with him in carrying forward the work of God, all 
animated by the same spirit, ail aiming at the same ob- 
ject, and filling the whole district in which they live 
with the preaching of the word. Under such a state of 
things, how rapidly would converts be multiplied, and 
how many new ties would bind ministering brethren to- 
gether. I may add, how greatly would the power of 
the elder ministry be increased. He that watereth 
would here in a special manner be watered himself. 



MINISTERS CAN DO THIS WORK. 269 



XLIII 

MINISTERS COMPETENT TO THIS WORK. — WITHOUT THEM IT CAN NOT BE 
DONE. — SUGGESTIONS TO THOSE THAT HAVE THE MINISTRY IN YIEW. 

To the remarks in the preceding paper I know it will 
be said, "We are not competent to this work." It 
must be left to the professors of theological seminaries. 
To this I reply, that one of the most popular objections 
made against theological professors is, that they have 
not precisely what you have, practical acquaintance with 
the working of the ministry. Not to mention ministers 
abroad, Dr. Stillman, Dr. Baldwin, Dr. Chapin, and 
more than either, Dr. Staughton, while engaged in the 
work of a laborious ministry, were thus instrumental in 
introducing to the pulpit a host of our most eminent 
preachers. But consider for a moment. Can you not 
always teach another what he does not know so well as 
you ? You can surely impart to another all the knowl- 
edge you have yourself. This is all that is required. 
If every minister would do this, he would confer an in- 
valuable benefit on those who are coming forward into 
the ministry. But I know, from my own observation, 
that brethren who make this objection underrate them- 
selves. I could enumerate scores and hundreds, who, 
by devoting a portion of their time to this object, might 
not only greatly increase the number, but add vastly to 
the efficacy of brethren who have no other means of im- 
provement. 

But this is not all. It by no means follows that the 
licentiate will go no further than you can find the time 
to carry him. Set a man of sound mind and earnest 



270 NEED OF INDIVIDUAL EFFOKT. 

purpose upon the right track, and he will go on by 
himself. Some of those whom you have thus cultivated, 
may, after feeling their own biases, pursue wider and 
more extended courses of study. Others, bent on self- 
improvement, will go on in a rapid course of self-de- 
velopment. The seed which you sow, though as a grain 
of mustard-seed, yet falling into good soil, may become 
a great tree. You may have the pleasure of seeing 
your pupils advancing in knowledge, piety, and influ- 
ence, until they are much abler ministers than yourself. 
What higher reward than this can an instructor either 
expect or desire ? 

You see then, brethren, the object which is upper- 
most in my mind. It has seemed to many who have 
thought on this subject, that the Baptists in this coun- 
try fail to accomplish one half of what is obviously and 
imperatively demanded of them by the Saviour. One 
of the reasons of our failure is, that we have not felt 
the importance of universal, individual effort. We 
have relied on voluntary associations to do what each 
one should do himself. The individual church mem- 
bers stand still, and yet expect the church to go for- 
ward. The church sees a great work before it, and in- 
stead of doing it, looks to the Home Missionary Society, 
or the Convention to do it. The minister sees the ne- 
cessity of greater numbers and greater efficiency in the 
ministry, but instead of doing the work himself, he 
turns it over to the Education Society. The Societies 
turn over the work to their Boards. The Boards turn 
it over to their Executive Committees. The Executive 
Committees turn it over to the Secretaries. Thus, in 
fact, the work of extending the cause of Christ among 



APPEAL TO THE MINISTRY. 271 

us, which belongs essentially to every disciple, is de- 
volved on some fifteen or twenty men, who, overbur- 
dened with business, do all they possibly can ; but what 
does this amount to, in comparison with the universal 
effort of six or eight hundred thousand communicants, 
each laboring in his own sphere, each building over 
against his own house, all animated with the same 
spirit, each determined to do with his whole heart the 
whole service which the Master has appointed to him 
individually, and casting loose from all entanglements, 
resolved, whether minister or private brother, to know 
nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. 

In the work specially of enlarging and strengthening 
the ministry, the ministry must, of course, take a prom- 
inent part. To them it especially appertains. With- 
out their whole-hearted aid, we may, by Associations 
and Societies, do here and there a little good, but noth- 
ing far-reaching, universal, and effective can be accom- 
plished. Tou, my brethren, see our condition. Does 
it not call for a universal effort ? Will you make it ? 
Will you put forth your hands, and uniting as one man, 
labor under God to place us in the position to which we 
should aspire, that of the foremost denomination on 
earth, in extending the kingdom of the Lord Jesus ? 
We have among us no delegated authority ; we have 
no central power ; we are all independent churches. 
Does not every one see that our efficiency must de- 
pend, not on organization, but on individuality ? If 
every one labors, and if all labor for the same object, 
and all labor in the same spirit, we shall possess a 
unity and efficiency of action which no form of organi- 
zation can possibly confer. Love to the Kedeemer binds 



272 SUGGESTIONS TO LICENTIATES. 

every individual to Christ and to each other, and all 
live, not to themselves but to Him who died for them. 
Shall we not make one universal effort to be such a 
church — to be such representatives of our Lord ? 

But it may very likely be said, Physician, heal thy- 
self. You are urging us to undertake the instruction 
of our younger brethren, Why do you not undertake it 
yourself ? Set us an example, and we will follow it. I 
acknowledge the obligation, and am willing to perform 
the duty. If my observation or experience is of the 
least value to a brother in the ministry, he is welcome 
to it. I will, therefore, in the remainder of this series, 
offer a few suggestions for the benefit of just such licen- 
tiates as I have alluded to. I propose to present no 
systematic treatise, but shall throw together, in a famil- 
iar manner, precisely such thoughts as would have been 
useful to me, when I was at the age and in the con- 
dition of my younger brethren. These remarks, then, 
are not designed for those who have spent several years 
in passing through the " regular course." My remarks 
are intended for persons, who, from secular avocations, 
have entered, or are thinking of entering, the ministry ; 
and who are of maturer age than is common for stu- 
dents. The path before them seems dark and almost 
impassable. My object is to throw a little light upon 
it, and relieve them, if possible, of some of that burden 
under which they now so painfully labor. 

There are, however, a few preliminary considerations 
to which I would refer, before I enter upon the subject 
of preaching. 

One of the most common sources of deep and anxious 
disquietude in the minds of men who, under the circum- 



SENSE OF INCAPACITY. 273 

stances supposed, have thought of devoting themselves 
either wholly or in part to the work of the ministry, 
is a feeling of mental and moral incapacity for the work. 
Of the moral incapacity I need not here write ; for 
though it exists, it is common to all stations and all 
conditions. The feeling of mental incapacity is not 
merely absolute, it is also relative ; the man not only 
feels his want of intellectual power to grasp the mighty 
truths of revelation, but also his inferiority in these 
respects to those who have spent many years in the study 
of books, in acquiring familiarity with several languages, 
and who have been subjected from youth to all the dis- 
cipline of the schools. Now, in so far as this feeling is 
absolute, that is, so far as it relates to the inability of 
man to comprehend the ways of God, it is true and 
salutary, and in harmony with the teachings of the 
Spirit. It is this feeling, when it is founded on a com- 
parison of ourselves with others, that I would here con- 
sider. The notion to which I refer may be expressed 
somewhat in words like these : " How can I, who have 
received nothing more than an English education, and 
that perhaps imperfect and nearly forgotten, open my 
mouth in the presence of men, some of whom have 
spent half their lives in study, and who have been 
trained in all the discipline of colleges and seminaries ?" 
Xow, to such a brother, I would say in the first place, 
AYho was it that marked out the bounds of your habi- 
tation, who placed you in the very course of life which 
you have thus far pursued ? Was it not a Being of 
omniscient wisdom and infinite love ? Did he not, from 
the beginning, know the precise work which he wished 
you to perform, and did he not direct your past life 

12* 



274 e N c o u b a a ehsk t to re l y 

with special reference to it ? Has he called you, or 
will be call you to any service for which lie will not 
qualify you ? He will not send you into this warfare 
without furnishing you with the armor which he wishes 
you to wear. The history of the world has not shown, 
moreover, that God has always employed human learn- 
ing in carrying out his most important purposes. Crom- 
well was a man of no more than a plain English educa- 
tion. Milton was learned in all the knowledge of his 
age. The lite of the former w~as certainly as important 
to mankind as the life of the latter. Burke was a man 
of acquisitions which astonished his contemporaries. 
Washington spent his early life as a surveyor, and had 
enjoyed no other advantages than those common to 
every respectable Virginia farmer. Which of them was 
chosen to confer the greatest blessing on humanity ? 
The age of Cromwell and Charles II. was fruitful in 
theologians of great learning, but where among them 
ail can we find a name that shines so brightly as that 
of John Buuyan, who, according to Maeaulay, could not 
spell correctly, and did not understand the grammar of 
his own language ? I mention not these instances to 
depreciate learning. This would be absurd. All I wish 
to affirm is, that the field of usefulness is open to all 
who wish to enter it, and that God assigns to us places 
in his vineyard according to his will, and that he quali- 
fies his servants for the place which he intends them to 
occupy. 

But again, it may be observed, that this feeling of 
unprepareJness for any new duties is almost universal. 
You will scarcely ever converse with a man respecting 
his early education, who does not wish that it had been 



ON DIVINE ASSISTANCE. 275 

different, and who will not tell you that under different 
training he would have been much more successful. The 
son of a man of wealth repines over the fact that he had 
not, by early poverty, been compelled to rely upon him- 
self. The son of a poor man regrets that he was obliged 
in youth to contend with difficulties and to suffer hard- 
ships while the other was enjoying all the advantages of 
the most expensive culture. If you take men who have 
been through the same course of education, the com- 
plaint is the same. One wishes that he had entered 
college earlier, another that he had not entered it so 
early ; one that he had pursued the languages more 
extensively, another that he had neglected them entirely 
for mathematics, and another that he had thrown them 
both aside, and devoted himself to philosophy and 
physical science. The feeling of our own insufficiency 
for any new and important undertaking is thus very 
common, and every man naturally refers his deficiency 
to the circumstances of his youth. This feeling, then, 
the licentiate shares with humanity. Were he to con- 
verse with men whom he considers the most favored, ho 
would find that they look upon their previous training, 
if they are thoughtful men, with a feeling similar to his 
own. The conclusion from all this seems to me evident. 
Let us all set ourselves earnestly to the work which God 
has placed before us, trusting that he will give us all 
the aid necessary to do his will, if we humbly and faith- 
fully rely upon Ids assistance. If we work, he will work 
in us. 



276 OBJECT OF EDUCATION. 

XLIV. 

OBJECT OF EDUCATION. — EDUCATION NOT CONFINED TO THE STUDY OF 
BOOKS. — DIFFICULTY OF ACQUIRING THE HABIT OF CONTINUOUS THOUGHT. 
— AIDS IN ACQUIRING IT. 

On the subject of the last paper, allow me to add 
another remark. The object of education is, I appre- 
hend, very generally misunderstood. It is commonly 
believed that there is some magical power emanating 
from the knowledge of Latin, and Greek, and mathe- 
matics, just as, in the dark ages, it was believed that 
evil spirits might be summoned or exorcised by drawing 
triangles on the floor, or by addressing them in scraps 
of the ancient languages. There is no magic whatever 
in this matter. The Latin word for a horse, expresses 
precisely the same idea as the English word. The fact 
is, that this knowledge, unless in exceptional cases, is, 
to all practical purposes, very soon forgotten, and all 
that remains is the mental* power gained by acquiring 
it. If young persons are accustomed to daily intellec- 
tual tasks, which they are obliged to perform, it is nat- 
ural to suppose that they will acquire the power of 
continuous thought, and the ability to direct their 
attention at will to any particular subject. If, together 
with this, the knowledge which they acquire is living 
and vital, if it be remembered through life, and serves 
to form the basis of sound opinions, and thus guide a 
man wisely through untried vicissitudes, the great ob- 
ject of education is accomplished. 

But it is not to be supposed, because a man has had 
no opportunity of studying books, that his life has been 



EDUCATION VARIOUSLY ACQUIRED. 277 

of necessity a blank. God, in mercy, has not left the 
means of mental cultivation so much to the sport of 
accident. He has endowed every man with senses, the 
inlets of knowledge, and has given him the power of 
elaborating this knowledge into general facts and prin- 
ciples. Every man who is capable of thinking, and 
who has the gift to believe that there is something in 
his own thoughts, is thus educating himself every day, 
or rather, I might say, is receiving his education from 
his Creator. But besides, and above this, if he have his 
own fortune to make, and is obliged to decide upon 
actions by his own unaided intellect and conscience, he 
is acquiring a discipline of the very best character. 
Being obliged to think for himself in matters which 
deeply concern himself, he learns to govern his conduct 
by principles, to examine every condition of an action 
with caution, to observe and remember the results of 
different decisions, and thus he forms for himself a char- 
acter, in which strength of common sense essentially 
preponderates. 

The conclusion at which we arrive from these facts is 
this. There is not, by any necessity, such a difference 
as is commonly supposed between one thoughtful man, 
who has had the opportunity for acquiring the learning 
of books, and another thoughtful man, who has been 
deprived of this opportunity. Between a thoughtful 
man, under any circumstances, and a frivolous man, no 
comparison need be instituted. A man who has arrived 
at the age of intellectual development, if he has cul- 
tivated the habit of thinking for himself, need, by no 
means, suppose that he has passed his life without any 
education. He has no need of deferring, on all subjects, 



278 FIRST ATTEMPTS DIFFICULT. 

to men of supposed learned culture. With modesty, 
and yet with confidence, he may advance his well-con- 
sidered opinions, and he will find that men of sense will 
hear him with attention. Such a man, while he feels 
his deficiencies, will labor strenuously to remove them. 
He will seek for knowledge from every quarter, and he 
will seek the more earnestly, because he is both aware 
of his want of it, and he knows how to use it. 

So far as preaching is concerned, however, there is 
one deficiency which such a man frequently feels : it is 
the difficulty of continuous thought, the power of 
arranging a series of ideas, so that each one individually, 
and all collectively, may bear upon the point which he 
wishes to enforce. He can give an opinion on a particular 
subject of discussion — he can exhort on the instant to 
a particular duty, but to construct a connected dis- 
course of half an hour long, in order to exhibit or 
prove a particular truth, he finds almost impossible. 

That there is here a real difficulty, it would be 
useless to deny ; but there is in it nothing whatever 
peculiar. It is precisely the same difficulty which 
meets us every hour of the day, when we attempt to 
do any thing to which we are not accustomed. It 
meets us when we first begin to handle a saw, to wield 
an axe, to guide a plow, or to sing a tune. The body 
has not become accustomed to this kind of action, and 
it moves awkwardly, sometimes so awkwardly that we 
fear lest we should never learn to do what we see other 
men doing with ease. The second and third trial, 
however, show some signs of improvement, and if we 
make the effort frequently, and at short intervals, we 
look back with wonder that any difficulty ever seemed 



MODES OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 279 

to exist. It is the same with any mental effort. 
When we are required to do what we have never been 
in the habit of doing, our minds act awkwardly, or 
seem to refuse to act at all. The remedy is the same ; 
make the effort, make it again and again, and we shall 
soon perceive that we have made some progress. Let 
a man continue in the same course, determined to 
secure for himself this habit of mind, and he will, 
before long, find that in any important matter, it is 
just as natural for him to think consecutively, as it is 
to think at all. 

There are several modes of improvement which a 
man, desiring thus to educate himself, may pursue 
with advantage. One of these is to study carefully any 
science that is presented in a well-arranged form, carry- 
ing in his mind the leading and the subordinate divis- 
ions, until he can go through all the principal topics 
without looking at the book. Suppose him to study 
English Grammar, using Green's Analysis, the best 
book on this subject with which I am acquainted. Let 
him take the first section, and make himself so familiar 
with it, that he can think it out for himself. He then 
proceeds to the next section in the same manner, and, 
at one view, connects them both together. As he ad- 
vances, let him always connect his present with his past 
acquisition, and hold in his recollection the thread which 
binds the whole together, until he has completed the 
subject. Let him study everything in this manner. If 
he reads a sermon, let him take it to pieces, write down 
for himself the divisions and subdivisions, and then criti- 
cize it, observing its excellences and its defects. If he 
read, or hear, a plea at the bar, let him take the same 



280 STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

course. He who will take this trouble, in order to 
* render himself a more useful laborer in the vineyard of 
the Master, will find himself abundantly rewarded. 

A most excellent means for cultivating this habit of 
mind is, to take up a book of Scripture, and proceed 
with it in the manner I have described. At the begin- 
ning, he may take an historical book, say, for instance, 
Genesis, and note down, as he proceeds, the several 
important points of the narrative. Let him fix them 
in his mind, in a consecutive series, so that he can 
recall them at will. After taking a few books of the Old 
Testament, he may proceed to the Acts of the Apostles, 
and treat it in the same manner. He may then take 
up the Harmony of the Gospels. If he does not read 
Greek, the English Harmony of Dr. Eobinson for this 
purpose, is just as good. Let him study this in the 
order of the events, until he is able by himself to go 
over the w T hole narrative of the life of the blessed 
Saviour. When he comes to an extended discourse of 
our Lord, he should treasure up, not merely the senti- 
ments, but the thread of thought which binds them 
together. Last of all, he may take up the Epistle of 
Paul to the Eomans, and study out its entire analysis. 
It is by far the most thoughtfully and systematically 
composed of any of the apostle's writings. By the 
time he has done this, he will have no difficulty in 
making out a train of thought for himself on any sub- 
ject connected with revealed truth. 

Of the advantages of such a mode of study, I surely 
need not speak. It must be seen that it will cultivate, 
in a remarkable degree, that power of consecutive 
thought which is so indispensable to a public speaker. 



RESULTS OF THIS STUDY. 281 

This, however, is but its smallest benefit. We readily 
perceive that any one who will study the Scriptures in 
this manner, will very soon be a scribe well instructed, 
able to bring from the treasury, things both new and 
old. The various relations of revealed truth to each 
other will spontaneously manifest themselves to him. 
Illustrations will crowd upon him from every part of 
the Scriptures, whatever subject may be under discus- 
sion. Objections, as they rise from any quarter, will 
find their ready reply from the word of God itself. His 
mind will thus be enriched with the very thoughts and 
words of God, and he will be accustomed to consider 
them in the very relations, and with the very connec- 
tions, established by Omniscience itself. All this a 
thoughtful and earnest man may do for himself, by 
the study of the English Bible, in the received ver- 
sion. 

But this is not all. This habit can never be ac- 
quired, without putting it further into practice. A 
man who intends to become a preacher, must devote 
his attention to the construction of plans of sermons. 
He should at once make a book, which must be ever 
at hand, in which he may write down any verse, which 
seems like a good text, as it occurs to him in his read- 
ing of the Scriptures ; writing out any thought, or 
plan, or division, that presents itself to him concerning 
it. These notes will be of great advantage fo him 
when he is looking for a subject, and will frequently 
save him many hours of valuable time. And besides, 
in this, as in other cases, our first thoughts are fre- 
quently our best thoughts, and a division or a plan 
suggested, as it seems, by accident, may be much 



282 PLANNING SERMONS. 

better than he could have elaborated by long-continued 
effort. 

But, besides this, he must acquire the habit of form- 
ing plans of sermons on all occasions, when walking, 
when riding, when at labor or exercise. These let him 
write down in another book prepared for this purpose, 
giving the divisions and subdivisions as much in detail 
as possible. Having made a plan, let it lie a few days, 
and then he may subject it to a second examination. 
If there be a minister in his neighborhood, it would be 
very desirable to secure his aid. Let him criticize your 
plan, and point out its defects. Take it and try again, 
and do not leave it until you have made it as perfect 
as possible. 

When this is done, however, the work is in a great 
measure completed. When you have such a plan in 
your mind, you will have no difficulty in speaking from 
your text. Words will flow readily when you know 
what you have to say, or if, at first, you have difficulty 
in this respect, it will easily be overcome by a little 
perseverance and practice. Whether you use written 
or oral delivery, the case is the same. Knowing what 
you have to say, and having the natural order in which 
to say it, all the rest is easy. You have broken the 
back of the difficulty, and it can not hereafter trouble 
you. Belying on the grace of Grod, you may go forward 
confidently in your work. 



PULPIT ASSISTANTS. 283 



XLY. 

PULPIT ASSISTANTS. — DIFFERENT CLASSES OF SERMONS. — DOCTRINAL SER- 
MONS. — PRACTICAL SERMONS. 

I closed my last paper with some remarks on the 
necessity of forming the habit of making plans, or 
skeletons of sermons. It will be understood, that by 
this I do not mean the mere putting together such 
thoughts as may occur to us, until we have enough to 
occupy the appointed time of a discourse ; but thoughts 
arranged in a natural order, so that one introduces 
another, each one strengthening all that have gone 
before it, and all bearing upon the point to which we 
desire to bring the mind of the audience. This process 
is exceedingly improving to the mind and heart, and is 
one of the most delightful of all intellectual efforts. 

Here, however, let me offer a caution. A strong 
temptation frequently assails a man, when preparing 
a sermon, to look around for helps. He can easily find 
a book of skeletons made to his hand, and it seems to 
him very convenient to make use of it. Let me urge 
every brother, as he values his self-respect, his honesty, 
his ministerial usefulness, as he values his own soul and 
the souls of others, to resist this temptation at the out- 
set. If he have any of these crutches, let him commit 
them at once to the flames, or he will never learn to 
walk. The habit is absolutely fatal. If commenced, 
it will increase until the power of original thought is 
lost. The man who begins to borrow from others will 
borrow more and more, and he will at last be a preacher 
of other men's sermons, acting a lie every time he goes 



284 CLASSES OF SERMONS. 

into the pulpit. I never knew a man addicted to this 
habit whom it did not ruin. Fear of discovery drives 
him from place to place, and at last drives him into 
some secular office, or some agency, in which one ser- 
mon will last him for a year. Whatever you have, 
then, be it little or much, let it be your own. If you 
draw from your own fountain the waters will con- 
tinually arise clearer, sweeter, and more abundant. If 
you neglect it for other men's cisterns, it will rapidly 
dry up, or its sluggish water will breed slime and filth, 
so that you yourself will turn away from it with dis- 
gust. I say this to the licentiate who is just com- 
mencing his work, and whose advantages for improve- 
ment have been limited. I fear, however, that these are 
not the only persons who are in danger from this habit. 
Men of thorough training, as it is called, sometimes fall 
into it. Is it not sad, that a man who has spent nine 
or ten years in preparation for the pulpit, must thus 
confess his inability to make a sermon, but is obliged 
to buy sermons ready made for him ? Such a man 
must certainly have mistaken his calling. I hope that 
in these remarks I do not seem censorious. I should 
not have made them if booksellers had not informed 
me that no books were more saleable than these various 
forms of u pulpit assistants." 

Sermons have been divided into several classes. 
What the divisions commonly made are, I do not re- 
member ; it will, however, readily occur to every one 
that they may be Doctrinal, Practical, Experimental, 
Expository, or Hortative. 

The object of the doctrinal sermon is to explain and 
prove some truth of revelation. 



DOCTRINAL SERMONS. 285 

In this kind of discourse, two tilings are specially to 
be observed. First, the exposition of the truth, and 
secondly, the proof of it. 

The exposition of the doctrine is, of course, a mat- 
ter of the utmost importance. If we attempt to prove 
any thing, the first matter demanding attention is, to 
know r for ourselves, and to exhibit clearly to others what 
it is that we desire to prove. From the neglect of this 
caution, men frequently announce the doctrine to be 
proved, and then prove something else, or really prove 
nothing at all. It is, therefore, not sufficient that we 
recite some expression of the doctrine derived from 
books, we must think it out for ourselves, and be sure 
that we understand it clearly. This will enable us to 
separate the truth from all extraneous matter, and pre- 
sent the simple statement distinctly to the minds of 
others. We shall thus guard the doctrine from abuse, 
and answer beforehand many objections which lie, not 
against the truth itself, but against the conceptions 
which men have erroneously associated with it. 

The proof of any truth of revelation must be essen- 
tially revelation itself. God has not made a revelation 
of that which has been already made known by natural 
religion. The highest authority for our belief of any 
truth, is that God has said it. Why, then, should we 
go to the weaker evidence to support the stronger ? We 
may present the texts in the Bible which affirm the 
truth directly, showing by a brief exposition that this 
is their exact and legitimate meaning. We may ad- 
duce other truths from Scripture which harmonize with 
what we affirm, or which take it for granted. We may 
appeal to the experience of inspired men, who have re- 



286 PROVING REVEALED TRUTH. 

lied on this truth as the foundation of their trust and 
hope, and thus, from every inspired source, derive con- 
firmation and proof of what we affirm to be true. If 
we wish to answer objections, we may show that this 
truth is in analogy with the truths of natural religion, 
but we should not, I think, appeal to this latter and 
feebler light, to prove any thing which we believe God 
to have spoken. 

I beg leave to call attention to these last remarks. 
There has seemed to me a growing disposition to omit the 
proof of a revealed truth from revelation, and attempt 
the proof from every other source than the Bible. 
Why should this be ? If the Bible be true, why 
should we ignore its evidence ? To do thus may seem 
more philosophical, and may be more pleasing to unre- 
generate men, but is it really according to the mind of 
the Spirit ? Do we not thus practically lead men to 
the conclusion that there is a higher authority than the 
word of G-od, by which it is to be judged, and to which 
its teachings are to be subjected ? When we have done 
this, what is left to us but natural religion ? We take 
such portions of the Scriptures as natural religion can 
prove, and the remainder is laid aside as unproved, and 
therefore valueless. 

In doctrinal discourses, it is important to remember 
that it is useless to prove what is self-evident ; and 
what, of course, all men acknowledge. When we at- 
tempt to prove a self-evident truth, we must, of course, 
fail ; for there is nothing more evident which can be 
brought forward as proof. I have frequently heard men 
deliver discourses of this character, and the result has 
been that those who fully believed the doctrine at the 



PRACTICAL SERMONS. 287 

commencement of the sermon, doubted the truth of it 
at the close. They said to themselves, If this is all the 
evidence on which it rests, we may, after all, have been 
in error. Such must always be the consequence of at- 
tempting to prove what is self-evident. 

But though the establishment of a doctrine be, 
formally, the object of a doctrinal discourse, it is not 
the preacher's whole, or even his principal object. He 
wishes this truth to have its moral effect on the minds 
of men. Hence he should never fail to apply it to 
men's consciences, and show the manner in which such 
a truth must affect our eternal interests. It is possible 
to prove a doctrine very clearly, and leave an audience 
as much unmoved, as if we were discussing a mathe- 
matical proposition. Paul did not thus exhibit the 
doctrines of revelation. The Epistle to the Komans is 
the most logical of all his treatises. It is a systemat- 
ical view of the plan of salvation. All the latter part 
of it, however, is made up of earnest practical exhort- 
ation. Nor is this enough. The apostle frequently 
suspends his argument, to introduce some practical or 
experimental truth flowing from the doctrine which he 
had established. The same remark applies with equal 
force to the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

I find, how r ever, that I am in danger of going more 
into detail than I intended, and of making a treatise, 
instead of offering a few desultory suggestions. I there- 
fore hasten to offer a few thoughts respecting practical 
sermons. 

A practical sermon is a sermon intended directly to 
influence our conduct, and conform it to the word of 
God. Here, I presume, we should endeavor to under- 



288 HEADS OF A PRACTICAL SEEM ON. 

stand clearly what the word of God commands or for- 
bids, and then fearlessly apply the rule to the conduct 
of men who hear us. Unless we do the first, we shall 
not be sure that we are uttering the commands of the 
Most High. Unless we do the second, our hearers will 
go away wholly unaffected, or applying the truth liber- 
ally to other men, but never seeing its bearing upon 
themselves. 

Take, for instance, the commandment, Thou shalt 
not steal. To steal is to take the property of another 
without his knowledge or consent. But, according to 
our Saviour's interpretation of the commandments, it 
forbids not only this form of transgression, but any 
mode of appropriating the property of another inconsist- 
ent with the precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself. Having clearly shown this meaning, and the 
broadness of the law of God, we should apply it to the 
audience directly before us. If we are preaching in a 
city, we should apply the command to the frauds of 
commerce, and show the manner in which they violate 
the precept of God. We should "analyze these transac- 
tions, and exhibit precisely the point of the transgres- 
sion. Under this would be included frauds on the 
revenue, and other similar sins. We should show that 
customs of trade do not alter the law of God, or our 
obligation to obey it. Were we preaching on the same 
text in a manufacturing or an agricultural district, our 
application would be different, as it would refer to the 
forms of violation of the command to which our hearers 
were most likely to be tempted. A sermon was preached 
on this text, some years since, in one of the most moral 
and exemplary towns in New England. The manner in 



CENSORIOUSNESS TO BE AVOIDED. 289 

which the subject was treated, may be learned from the 
results. On the next morning, the streets were alive 
with men and women, carrying books, household uten- 
sils, and a multitude of articles which they had long 
since borrowed, but had neglected to return. How 
would the light of the church shine, if practical sermons 
were preached in every pulpit of our country, with pre- 
cisely the same results ? 

Here, however, we must guard against censoriousness. 
We must apply the command to the evil practice, avoid- 
ing all personality, and above all, taking care that we 
do not fall into the sin of rebuking sin for the gratifica- 
tion of our own evil passions. There is no occasion in 
which we need to be so deeply imbued with love, as 
when we are exposing sin. In no other manner can we 
render our reproofs effectual. Here, emphatically, we 
need wisdom from on high. We must be plain, simple, 
scriptural, fearless, and yet affectionate. There is abun- 
dant need of this sort of preaching. Many men have 
sat for years under the sound of the gospel, continuing 
in the practice of some common form of dishonesty, or 
prevarication, because they have never been taught the 
simple principles of honesty and truthfulness. 



XLVI. 

EXPERIMENTAL, EXPOSITORY, AND HORTATORY SERMONS. 

In my last paper, I offered a few suggestions respect- 
ing doctrinal and practical sermons. I proceed to con- 
sider those denominated experimental. 

This class of subjects occupies far less attention, as it 

13 



290 EXPERIMENTAL SERMONS 

seems to rue, than its importance deserves. A soul is 
dead in sin, its affections are fixed on the things that 
perish, and it is surrendered up to the dominion of its 
lusts and passions. By the Spirit of God it is made 
sensible of its condition, it repents, believes, and a new- 
principle of spiritual life is created within it. Its affec- 
tions are changed. It is henceforth in antagonism with 
the world which it once loved. It is now living for 
heaven, but it is sanctified only in part. The remains 
of sin within it create a continual warfare with that 
which is spiritual. Faint, yet pursuing, it still main- 
tains the conflict, surrounded with doubts and fears, yet 
upheld by an invisible arm. It is under the discipline 
of a kind and indulgent parent, who chastises it for its 
good, that it may be made partaker of his holiness. It 
struggles on, looking for the recompense of reward, 
until it arrives at that blessed consummation where the 
pure in heart see God. 

Now every one must see that there is here revealed 
an internal history of most absorbing interest, which 
the world knows not of. It is, in short, the narrative 
of the working of the new nature, in opposition to sin 
within us and without us, the life-struggle of an imper- 
fectly sanctified soul after perfect holiness. The exhi- 
bition of divine truth on these subjects is always intense- 
ly interesting to the true believer. He thus learng, that 
in all his internal trials, he is following in the path of 
those who have fought the good fight, and have entered 
into rest. When he has mistaken the true moral char- 
acter of his exercises, he is thankful to be corrected. He 
learns to examine his own heart more closely, and gains 
confidence as he discovers that his spot is the spot of 



LIABLE TO BE PERVERTED. 291 

God's children. I can not but believe that the piety of 
the church would be much more vigorous and consistent, 
and that mistakes for eternity would be much less com- 
mon, if experimental religion were much more frequent- 
ly the subject of our discourses. 

The common error of discourses from experimental 
texts is, that they are prone to become doctrinal. Thus, 
if a minister should take as a text, " My soul thirsteth 
for God, the living God ; when shall I arise and appear 
before God ?" he would be very likely to go into an 
argument to prove that the devout soul longed after 
God, and show the reason for it, closing with a string 
of miscellaneous inferences. How much better, after 
explaining distinctly what was meant, to illustrate the 
fact from the experience of David, as given in the 
Psalms and elsewhere, from the experience of Paul and 
other eminent saints, whose lives have been recorded by 
the pen of inspiration, and from the experience of pious 
men of a later age, closing with the blessed assurance 
of our Saviour, that those who hunger and thirst after 
righteousness shall certainly be filled. It may be said 
this is not logical, it is merely declamatory. Good, but 
it is just such declamation as the Holy Spirit has used 
abundantly. It is such declamation as strengthens and 
confirms the soul of the saint, and marks the line of 
separation between the saint and the sinner. Can 
logical preaching do more than this ? 

The source from which we are to derive experimental 
as well as all other religious truth, is, of course, the 
Holy Scriptures. If we would read the lives of holy 
men as the Spirit has given them, meditating on them 
devoutly, placing ourselves in their condition, and com- 



292 EXPEBIMENTAL TOPICS. 

paring and contrasting our sentiments with theirs, we 
should both improve ourselves in piety, and find much 
matter for preaching. The lives of Christians under 
trial, in sickness, bereavement, discouragement, and joy, 
especially in times of persecution and martyrdom, afford 
a rich field for the illustration of experimental religion. 
Another source from which the experimental preacher 
will draw an abundant supply of truth and illustration, 
is found in the examination and observation of his own 
heart, and the observation of the working of religion in 
the hearts of others. Why should a man hesitate to 
exhibit the dealings of God with his own soul, the 
struggles against indwelling sin, and the best modes of 
resisting it, his doubts and fears, and the means of their 
removal ? He need not, of course, mention his own 
name, nor obtrude himself on his people, but by thus 
unfolding what he has himself felt, he will find that he 
is binding himself to them by a tie that nothing but 
death can sever. And then he will learn much by visit- 
ing his people, and conversing from house to house on 
their religious condition and progress. If they become 
familiar with him, they will love to unbosom their whole 
souls to him. In sickness and affliction, he will be 
their dearest friend, their chosen spiritual counselor. 
It is thus that the pastor acquires a rich fund of exper- 
imental knowledge which he returns to his people with 
interest, from the pulpit, or in the conference room. It 
is from want of this intercourse between pastor and 
people, from the neglect of pastoral visiting, that ser- 
mons are so frequently dry, abstract, and general ; all 
true, and all well expressed, but they lack the vitality 
that carries them to the heart. They may be "success- 



EXPOSITORY SERMONS. 293 

ful efforts/' but they awaken no moral emotion, and 
they make no one any better. 

The expository sermon is employed in illustrating and 
enforcing, not a particular sentence, but a chapter, or 
what is better, a paragraph of the word of God. This 
is a most instructive and profitable exercise for both 
preacher and hearer. It teaches us to read the Scrip- 
tures with greater attention, and to observe not only the 
meaning of single sentences, but the connection which 
binds the several sentences together, limiting or expand- 
ing the sense, and giving point and meaning to them col- 
lectively, which they lose when considered individually. 

The preacher, in an expository discourse, should take 
great pains to ascertain the circumstances under which 
the passage selected was spoken, its relations to what 
has preceded and what follows it, so that he may place 
himself as much as possible in the condition of the 
writer. He must meditate on each sentence, and recall 
similar sentiments in other parts of Holy Writ, and 
thus form a distinct conception, which he can convey in 
his own language, of the meaning of the writer. But 
these sentences were never delivered as isolated and dis- 
connected truths. No man in his senses, unless he 
writes or speaks proverbs, ever writes or speaks in this 
manner. While each sentence is the announcement 
of a particular truth, every sentence is closely connected 
with what precedes and what follows, and all have a 
distinct bearing upon the leading idea which it is the 
design of the writer to enforce or illustrate. Now it is 
this idea which the expositor should seize upon, and 
thus exhibit in the clearest manner the thread which 
binds all these gems together. It is frequently surpris- 



294 APPLICATION TO THE. CONSCIENCE. 

ing to observe what unexpected richness of meaning 
flows from a passage when it is thus skillfully analyzed, 
and how firmly it fixes itself in the memory, recurring 
to us ever afterward, whenever we read that portion of 
God's word. 

But it will occur to every one that a minister's duty 
is not performed when he has done all this. He may 
have done it, and yet have gone through with an inter- 
pretation as a simply intellectual exercise, with all the 
indifference of a German neologist. He must go further 
than this. As he proceeds, he must enforce every suc- 
cessive portion on the conscience of his hearers, and 
bring the truth home to their business and bosoms. He 
must interweave these divine sentiments with their 
whole course of thought, and the whole practice of their 
lives. One verse is doctrinal, another is practical, an- 
other devotional ; one arouses to energy, another agi- 
tates us with fear, and another enkindles Christian hope 
and encourages doubtful faith. All these uses should 
be made in the progress of the discourse. Nothing is 
more profitable than an exposition thus carried out. 
Some Protestant churches require that one of the ser- 
vices of the Sabbath shall always be of this character. 
Nor is this without reason. When the Scriptures, in 
their connection, are thus explained from Sabbath to 
Sabbath, the people will become familiar with the 
word of God, and false doctrine can rarely find an 
entrance among them. The late Dr. Mason, of New 
York, was peculiarly happy in this mode of preaching. 
He enjoyed it himself more than any other, and he be- 
lieved that it had, more than any other, been blessed to 
his people. 






HORTATORY PREACHING. 295 

Hortatory preaching consists in an exhortation to 
the performance of some particular duty, as, for in- 
stance, faith, repentance, etc., or to avoid some special 
evil, as lying, Sabbath-breaking, hypocrisy, impurity, etc. 

Hortatory preaching is liable to a fault which greatly 
detracts from its usefulness : it is sameness. Hence, it 
is sometimes said, disparagingly, of a sermon, it was 
nothing but an exhortation which we have heard a hun- 
dred times before. Now, I think the proper remedy for 
this evil is to present the exhortation precisely as we 
find it in the Scriptures, confining ourselves strictly to 
the text. Thus the exhortation to repentance, if urged 
on general principles, will be all exhausted by one dis- 
course. If we take the Scripture reasons as they are 
presented, each one makes & discourse, as, for instance, 
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, or the 
new dispensation has now appeared ; repent, for God 
has appointed a day in which he ivill judge the ivorld ; 
repent, on account of the mercy of God ; the goodness 
of Gi-od leadeth thee to repentance, etc. Each idea fur- 
nishes a different reason, and the ground-work of a dif- 
ferent discourse. 

While I thus refer to these several forms of dis- 
course, I do not suppose that a sermon need to be, or 
ought to be, either the one or the other exclusively. 
Nevertheless, either one or the other form will com- 
monly predominate. A doctrinal sermon w r oulcl be im- 
perfect without exhortation, a hortative sermon fre- 
quently requires both doctrine and exposition. While 
this, however, is true, the main object of the discourse 
will be different, and by this its character may be desig- 
nated. 



296 texts: 

Of what kind soever a sermon may be, it should 
never terminate in abstract discussion. Its object is to 
move men to faith, repentance, and reconciliation to 
God. We must not suppose that it is enough to con- 
vince the understanding ; and that men will make the 
application themselves. This is, in fact, the last thing 
they are disposed to do. We must do it for them. We 
must make them feel that they, individually, are the 
persons addressed, and that their own personal salva- 
tion is involved in the truth which we set before them. 
That is the best sermon which leads the hearer to think 
the least about the preacher, and the most about him- 
self and his relations to God and eternity. 



XLVII. 

TEXTS. — WHY SHOULD A TEXT BE TAKEK AT ALL? — HOW MAY IT BE 

USED? 

I pboceed to add a few thoughts on the subject of 
texts. 

I will in the first place inquire, What is the use of 
taking a text at all ? 

Is it to indicate that the man who addresses us is a 
minister ? This is, I believe, quite a common notion. 
It is by many persons believed that no one has a right 
to address his fellow-men from a passage of Scripture, 
unless he be of the clerical order. Hence, when a 
minister wanted a lay brother or a student for the 
ministry to speak from the pulpit in a revival, or on 
some missionary subject, I have often heard him com- 
bine with his request the remark, " You know, you 



WHY TAKEN. 297 

need not take a text." I think that few of my readers 
will, upon reflection, consider this a sufficient reason for 
placing a sentence from the word of God at the com- 
mencement of our discourses, when we speak to men as 
the ambassadors of Christ. 

Again, do we use a text as a kind of motto to indi- 
cate that we are to discourse on some religious topic ? 
If this be so, it is not without its uses ; it would dis- 
tinguish a sermon from a lyceuni lecture, or a speech 
at a public meeting. To take a text for this purpose, 
would certainly have its advantages, but they might 
easily prove illusory. A text might still be used to 
usher in, and give additional weight to a political ha- 
rangue ; or, to save a minister the labor of pulpit prep- 
aration, it might be prefixed to a lyceum lecture, so 
that the same discourse would answer either purpose, 
according to circumstances. 

The taking of a text by a Christian minister is 
justified by faV higher reasons than these. It proceeds 
upon the supposition that the Bible is the word of the 
living God ; the only manifestation that has been made 
to us of the will of our Creator and our Judge, the only 
record of what he has done for our salvation ; the only 
volume on whose pages are inscribed the conditions on 
which we may escape eternal wrath, and enter into the 
rest which remaineth for the people of God. This is 
the truth which the minister of the gospel is sent forth 
to utter. This is the beginning, and middle, and end 
of his teaching. He comes to us with a message from 
on high. He claims to be an ambassador. It is meet, 
therefore, that he should take for his subject, not merely 
as his motto, some part of the revelation from God, so 

13* 



298 USE OF TEXTS 

that when he speaks to us, we may know that he keeps 
within the limits of his commission. It is this truth 
alone which God has promised to accompany with that 
energy of the Holy Spirit, without which we know that 
no soul is ever made wise unto salvation. 

But suppose a text taken from the volume of in- 
spiration, What use shall we make of it ? There are 
several ways in which it may be treated. We may 
draw an inference from it, and make the inference, 
instead of the text, the subject of our discourse. Thus, 
suppose we take the text, " I have heard of thee with 
the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes seeth thee ; 
wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and 
ashes/' From this we may infer, that we are more af- 
fected by the sense of sight than of hearing, and hence 
the superiority of the former sense to the latter. We 
may make this fact the subject of discourse, and amuse 
our hearers with a description of the nature of both 
these senses, then a comparison of them with each 
other, and then with a dissertation on the various 
points of the superiority of sight. 

Or we may generalize a truth into some general law, 
and discuss the general law, instead of the particular 
case of it presented in the Scriptures. Thus we might 
take the text, "Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto 
salvation/' and generalize it into the law, that a per- 
manent change of action is always preceded by a per- 
manent change of character. This is no doubt true, 
and is a general law, under which the case in the text 
is comprehended. We might take this as our subject, 
and enter into a metaphysical examination of motives, 
and their effect on the will, and illustrate our truth 



SOMETIMES PERVERTED. 299 

from history, sacred and profane, from our own con- 
sciousness, and a hundred other sources. 

Sometimes a text is taken, and the object of the 
preacher is not to exhibit the meaning of the writer, 
but to show how much meaning he can get out of it. 
Thus a narrative, or a parable, is sometimes taken, and 
it is allegorized, or spiritualized, as it is called, and the 
whole plan of redemption, or any particular view of it 
which pleases the preacher, is evolved from it. Thus 
the beautiful parable of the good Samaritan has been 
allegorized^ and people have wondered at the skill of 
the preacher who found in the wounded man the sinner 
under condemnation, in the priest and Levite the cere- 
monial and the moral law, in the good Samaritan the 
Saviour, and in the inn the church of Christ, 

Now, who does not see that thus treating the Scrip- 
tures w r e can make them teach any thing, natural phi- 
losophy, metaphysics, political economy, social philos- 
ophy, or whatever you please. The Bible ceases to be 
to us a revelation from God, for w r e can make it, at the 
pleasure of the speaker, teach wisdom or nonsense, 
solemn truth or flippant frivolity. If we may take 
such liberties with, the Scriptures, w r e might take any 
other book as a repository of texts, as well as the word 
of God ; and we might derive from it just as good a 
meaning. Such can not, surely, be the way in wdrich 
we should use the truth revealed to us by God himself 
for our eternal salvation. 

In what manner, then, having taken a text, are we, 
as disciples of Christ, permitted to use it ? I answer, 
we profess to believe that the revelation of God is pure 
truth from heaven ; that the teaching found in that 



300 ASCERTAINING THE MIND 

revelation is dictated by the Spirit of G-od, and contains 
within it the mind of the Spirit. We are bound, then, 
first of all, to ascertain, as far as we are able, what is 
the mind of the Spirit in that particular text, and 
having found this, to explain and enforce it upon our 
hearers. What else can we do if we are, as we claim 
to be, ambassadors of Christ ? What should we think 
of an ambassador, who, instead of governing himself 
by his instructions, and diligently seeking for the mean- 
ing attached to them by his government, should deduce 
from them his own inferences, and propose terms de- 
rived from these inferences, or from the principles which 
he might generalize from them, or the views which he 
might obtain by considering them merely as allegories ? 
We should certainly consider such a man wonderfully 
unfit for an ambassador. If we are ambassadors for 
Christ, why should we not be governed by the same 
principles ? How else can we be ambassadors at all ? 
What right have we to take the words of inspiration, 
and drawing our own inferences, cover them ostensibly 
with the authority of God himself ? This is surely to 
handle the word of God deceitfully. 

If, on the other hand, we ascertain the mind of the 
Spirit, and enforce this upon our hearers, we know that 
we are delivering to them the message which God has 
committed to us. We preach the preaching which he 
has bidden us, and He has promised to accompany this, 
and this only, with the saving influences of the Holy 
Spirit. Observe, also, the effect of this habit on both 
minister and people. The minister will soon acquire an 
extensive and accurate knowledge of the word of God, 
and while he is doing this for himself, his people will 



OF THE SPIRIT. 301 

be nourished with the pure word of life. They will be 
indoctrinated neither into this or that ism, but will be 
sober, sound, whole-hearted, Bible Christians, well in- 
structed in what God has spoken, knowing little and 
caring less for the opinions and doctrines of men. A 
large portion of the dissension and disagreement of 
Christians, proceeds from our teaching the doctrines of 
men as a part of that which God has revealed as his 
own truth. Should we not all come nearer to each 
other, if we all endeavored to learn precisely what the 
Spirit has taught, and nothing but what he has taught. 
The nearer we all come to the truth, the nearer, assur- 
edly, shall we be to each other. 

Nor is this all. If we ascertain the precise meaning 
of the Spirit, and make this the theme of our discourse, 
we shall attain to endless variety. We can scarcely find 
two texts of Scripture which, if attentively considered, 
give us exactly the same idea. Sometimes a truth is 
presented under one aspect, and sometimes under an- 
other. In different places, the same duty is enforced 
by different considerations. By observing these differ- 
ent phases of the same truth, we shall be able to pre- 
sent it continually in different aspects, and thus avoid 
the necessity of ever repeating ourselves. If, on the 
other hand, we pay no attention to the variety of cir- 
cumstances with which the Spirit of God has associated 
it, we shall fall into abstract views of truth, and say all 
we have to say on a particular doctrine in one sermon. 
Hence, we shall, if we preach on the same subject 
again, repeat essentially what we have said before, or, 
as we frequently are tempted to do, preach again the 
old sermon. 



302 INTIMACY WITH THE BIBLE. 

I know it will be objected to what I have here sug- 
gested, that to preach in this manner, will require an 
accurate knowledge of the word of God. I grant it, 
but is it not desirable that a minister should have an 
accurate knowledge of the word of God ? Is not this a 
far better and higher acquisition than a knowledge of 
the words of men ? Why should we attempt to teach 
men out of the Scriptures, if we do not seek to know 
more of the Scriptures than they ? I know that the 
tendency is in the other direction. We have all man- 
ner of contrivances for obviating the necessity to minis- 
ters, of a familiar acquaintance with the word of God. 
We have sermons made for them, and Scripture selections 
for different occasions and services, so that a man may 
perform ministerial duty, with no more knowledge of 
the Scriptures than might be expected from any in- 
telligent layman. While, how r ever, we do this, we cease 
not to speak of the solemn responsibility of ministers, 
and the great amount of preparation necessary in order 
to explain to others the word of God. If preaching and 
the work of the ministry can be thus made easy, a very 
small amount of preparation will surely be requisite for 
the satisfactory discharge of its duties. We believe 
that the best preparation for preaching is a familiar ac- 
quaintance with the true meaning of the word of God, 
and that any thing wdiich renders such an acquaintance 
unnecessary, will weaken the power of the ambassador 
of Christ. 



MORAL PREPARATION. 303 

XLVIII. 

MORAL REQUISITES FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES. — INTELLECTUAL 
PREPARATION. — A KNOWLEDGE OF THE MEANING OF THE WORDS, OF THE 
CONTEXT, AND OF THE MANNERS AND USAGES OF THE TIME. 

I have referred, in my last paper, to the mind of the 
Spirit, and have said, that to ascertain this, was the 
first work to be done in preparing a sermon. 

It may be well for us to ask, How can we ascertain 
the mind of the Spirit ? On this subject, it may be 
worth while to offer a few suggestions. 

It is obvious, that in our present condition of moral 
and intellectual darkness, we are incapable of knowing 
the things of God, unless the Spirit of God enlighten 
us. The presence of that Spirit has been promised to 
us whenever we seek it. If any man lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and up- 
braideth not, and it shall be given him. If ye, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how 
much more shall your Father in heaven give his Holy 
Spirit to them that ask him. Relying on these promises, 
we may then ask in faith, nothing doubting, and con- 
fidently expect that the Spirit will lead us into all 
necessary truth, if we ask for it in an humble and 
childlike temper. "We may ask for the aid of the Spirit 
with special confidence in this particular case. We are 
obeying the command of Christ, and he has promised 
to be with us. We are laboring to convert and sanctify 
the souls for whom he died. We are doing his work, 
and not our own, and if we go to him for the aid we 
need, he assuredly will not disappoint us. If we desire 



304 NEED OF DEVOTIONAL FEELINGS. 

to ascertain the mind of the Spirit, our first duty is to 
pray for light to that Spirit by whose inspiration the 
text was revealed. 

Again, it is of great importance, if we would know 
the mind of the Spirit, that we maintain habitually a 
spirit of thoughtfulness and devotion ; and that our 
souls be, in a moral condition, in harmony with the 
truth on which we are meditating. A worldly, vain- 
glorious, ambitious, pleasure-loving, frivolous soul, can 
not surely discern the things of the Spirit, for they are 
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for 
they are spiritually discerned. He may repeat the for- 
mula of doctrine to which the text is analogous, as he 
finds it in the standard of his sect ; or may present the 
view of the doctrine found in the volumes of systematic 
theology ; or instruct us with a synopsis of the views of 
commentators ; but he will not taste the water from 
the pure fountain, which is opened only in the heart in 
which the Spirit resides. With him the study of the 
text is mainly an intellectual exercise, with which the 
soul has very little to do. His hearers, if at all ac- 
quainted with the movements of the human heart, per- 
ceive that he is merely repeating a lesson, and that 
he is not, with his own hands, handling the word of 
life. 

But, besides this, we shall be much more likely to 
arrive at the mind of the Spirit in any particular text, 
when our minds are specially in harmony with the truth 
which the text reveals. For instance, let a man read 
the 51st Psalm with a thoughtless, irreverent spirit, 
and he will see in it nothing peculiar, and it would be 
difficult for him to select a verse from which he could 



INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 305 

make a sermon. Let now, the same man, bowed down 
with penitential sorrow, read the same Psalm, and 
every verse will overflow with meaning, every sentiment 
will find a response in his inmost spirit, and he would 
be able, from any verse, taken at random, to pour out 
the feelings of a contrite soul, and call others to the ex- 
ercise of godly sorrow. Take another instance. Let a 
man, with but low ideas of the work of redemption, 
read the parting words of the Saviour from the 14th to 
the 17th chapters of the Gospel of John, and they will 
probably seem to him figurative, abstract, and almost 
enigmatical. But let him read them when the love of 
God is shed abroad in his heart, so that he is able, in 
some humble manner, to appreciate the love of Christ 
in offering up himself for his soul, and how deeply 
touching, how intensely affecting does every word ap- 
pear ! The heart of the Christian holds, as it were, 
direct intercourse with the heart of the Saviour, and 
the redeemed sinner seems with the beloved apostle at 
the Supper, to recline his head on the bosom of the 
Kedeemer. 

It would seem, then, that if we would in any case 
arrive at the mind of the Spirit, we must cultivate the 
indwelling of the Spirit in our own hearts. We see 
the effect of this habit of mind in the case of Payson. 
You could not, in conversation, mention a passage of 
Scripture to him but you found his soul in harmony 
with it — the most apt illustrations would flow from his 
lips, the fire of devotion would beam from his eye, and 
you saw at once that not only could he deliver a ser- 
mon from it, but that the ordinary time allotted to a 
sermon would be exhausted before he could pour out 



306 INTELLECTUAL PREPARATION. 

the fullness of meaning which a sentence from the 
word of God presented to his mind. 

The above suggestions refer specially to the moral 
preparations required, in order to arrive at the mind 
of the Spirit. Those which follow have respect mainly 
to what may be called intellectual preparation. 

It is obvious that, no matter in what language a sen- 
timent is written, we can never understand it, unless 
we understand with sufficient accuracy the meaning of 
the words of which it is composed. If we attach to 
them no meaning whatever, or an inaccurate, vague, 
exaggerated, or insufficient meaning, the simplest sen- 
tence may seem to us involved in the deepest obscurity. 
This, then, is our first business, to ascertain, as accu- 
rately as possible, the meaning of the words which the 
Spirit has chosen as the medium by which the thoughts 
of God shall be revealed to man. A sufficient degree of 
attention to this simple direction will render many a 
passage luminous, which now seems hopelessly beyond 
the reach of our understanding. 

Having done this, we must next examine the course 
of thought of the writer, as seen in the context. This 
is a matter of the very greatest importance. Without 
it, we can never know the meaning of any thing which 
we either read or hear. Every sentence in a connected 
discourse is closely associated with what goes before and 
what follows after it. Its abstract meaning is modified 
by that of its immediate adjuncts, and by the general 
scope of thought of which it is an integral part. It is 
on this account that proverbs are so frequently either 
incorrectly understood, or not understood at all. When 
they appear as isolated propositions, they stand out 



ARABIAN PROVERB. 307 

alone, with neither antecedent nor subsequent matter 
to furnish us with a clew to their meaning, and though 
we may acknowledge the general truth, w r e see not its 
particular application. We grow weary of this discon- 
nected thought, and never read a large portion of it at 
the same time, with any particular advantage. To illus- 
trate w r hat I mean by an example. The Arabs use the 
following proverb, " When the Pasha's horses went to 
be shod, the beetle stretched out his leg/' Now, taken 
abstracted from all associations, this proverb might have 
several meanings. It might intend to say of some mean 
Pasha, that the beetle mistook his horses for beetles; or 
that the beetle was, of all insects, the most given to 
imitation ; or that shoeing was so universally useful, 
that even beetles felt the necessity of submitting to it. 
But suppose the speaker had been discoursing upon the 
character of a feeble-minded, pompous, vain-glorious 
man, who was always arrogating to himself the reputa- 
tion due to others, and placing himself where no one else 
would ever place him, among the men most conspicuous 
for wisdom of counsel and energy of action, and should 
close his description with the proverb I have quoted, 
" When the Pasha's horses went to be shod, the beetle 
stretched out his leg," who then could doubt the mean- 
ing it was intended to convey ? From illustrations of 
this kind, and every one can multiply them at will, we 
readily see the absolute necessity of studying the scope 
of thought in the w^hole passage from which the text is 
taken, if we would learn the mind of the Spirit in any 
particular passage. Unless we do this, we shall be led 
into inevitable error. 

I may perhaps remark in passing, that the division 



308 ARBITRARY DIVISION OF THE BIBLE. 

of the Scriptures into chapters and verses has greatly- 
increased the liability to error in this respect. We read 
no other book where the sense is broken up in this man- 
ner. A chapter in some cases divides a sentence. There 
are no paragraphs, a form of division so important to 
the understanding of the course of an author's thought. 
We have no minor division but verses, and they chop 
up the meaning at random, so that the most continu- 
ous narrative is printed like a book of disconnected sen- 
tences. We soon form the habit of considering every verse 
as an isolated proposition, separate from every thing 
else in the book. When the Bible is read in schools, it 
is commonly read by apportioning a verse to each schol- 
ar. To the child, each verse is the announcement of a 
distinct proposition. The habit grows up with us. We 
cease to follow the train of thought, and look upon it 
as so many broken and independent fragments. The 
effect of all this is most unfortunate, and we must 
deliver ourselves from it if we would understand the 
Scriptures. Many of the most absurd and heretical 
views of the Scriptures are maintained by this mode 
of treating the word of God. A distinguished theo- 
logical teacher used to caution his pupils, never to allow 
the use of any text as proof, unless the person quoting 
it gave chapter and verse, so that the passage might be 
examined in its place, and the meaning of it definitely 
ascertained. The young minister will save himself from 
many an embarrassment, by adhering strictly to this rule. 
Besides this, the sense is frequently illustrated, modi- 
fied, limited, extended, or adorned by the circumstances 
of the speaker, his age, country, and previous culture, 
by the habits and manners of the time, the course of 



HEBREW CUSTOMS. 309 

thought, and the progress in civilization of the people. 
A knowledge of these not only throws light upon the 
sense, but gives great variety and vivacity to the dis- 
course, provided it be not carried too far. We want 
Christianity, not Christian antiquities, and the latter 
only as they may subserve the illustration of the former. 
Thus the question of our Lord, " If David in spirit call 
him Lord, how is he his son ?" loses all its point unless 
we remember the boundless precedence which the Ori- 
entals, and especially the Jews, awarded to parents and 
remoter ancestors. The reason why the Jews heard 
Paul in silence until he spoke of being sent to the Gen- 
tiles, when they drowned his voice by a tumultuous out- 
break of popular indignation, would not be apparent, 
did we not know that the Jews held themselves to be 
the special favorites of God, while all other nations were 
unclean outcasts, and that to offer the blessings of sal- 
vation to others besides themselves, was to insult the 
national character by sinking it to the level of the hated 
and despised Gentiles. 



XLIX 

CONSTRUCTION OF A SERMON. — WHAT IS A SERMON? — ACQUAINTANCE WITH 
THE HUMAN HEART, HOW ACQUIRED. — NECESSITY OF UNFLINCHING 
MENTAL EFFORT. 

In my last paper, I supposed the minister to have 
attained a clear view of the teaching of the Spirit in 
any particular text. The foundation is laid, the first 
important work is done. He knows what the truth is, 
which he intends to enforce, and if he have arrived at it 



310 CONSTRUCTION OF A SERMON. 

in the way I have proposed, his soul is moved with the 
thought which he is about to set before others. 

What is the next step ? This truth he is to use for 
the purpose of producing a particular effect upon his 
fellow-men. He wishes, by means of it, to create in 
them conviction, repentance, faith, hatred of sin, striv- 
ing after holiness, deadness to the world, trust in God, 
endurance of hardness for the cause of Christ, or any- 
other Christian grace. He wants so to exhibit the 
truth before him, as to produce this particular result. 
I say this truth now before him, not any, or every, or 
all truth. He is not to take a text and aim at a partic- 
ular result, and then bring all the truth in the Bible to 
accomplish it. He would then use himself up in a 
single sermon. He succeeds in making a sermon, as he 
renders this particular truth subservient to his particu- 
lar purpose. His sermon is to be his text expanded, 
his text his sermon contracted. Keeping within these 
limits, as I have said, he will enrich and invigorate his 
own mind, and he will present an endless variety to his 
hearers. 

We see then his position, what he intends to do, and 
the means by which he intends to do it. Here is an 
audience before him of immortal souls, on whom he 
hopes to make a given impression ; here is a particular 
truth revealed by God himself, by means of which this 
impression is to be made. A train of thought, evolving 
this truth, is to be presented in such a manner as to 
lead to this result. This train of thought is the sermon, 
and it is successful or not, as it accomplishes this pur- 
pose. Here, then, we have the text on the one hand, 
and the audience on the other, and the sermon is to be 



KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. 311 

so constructed as to bring this text to bear on the hearts 
and consciences of these immortal souls. 

It would seem evident from this statement of the 
case, that the next business of the preacher was to be 
acquainted with the human heart. He should know 
its different moral biases, its endless subtlety, the vari- 
ous forms in which the love of honor, pleasure, indo- 
lence, human esteem, social position, wealth, sensual 
gratification, etc., oppose the entrance of truth. He 
should understand, on the other hand, the nature and 
office of conscience, its power, its authority, and the 
character of those teachings, which, as the voice of God, 
it utters even in the tumult of passion, as well as in the 
hour of solitude. When I say this, however, I do not 
refer to the study of books, though these may render 
him assistance. I do not .propose that a man in prepar- 
ing a sermon should go to his books for the purpose of 
learning how this motive would excite men, or how that 
other would depress them. What I urge is, that he 
acquire such an habitual acquaintance with his own 
heart, by constant reflection on these subjects, that the 
right motives and views will suggest themselves sponta- 
neously and without effort, as the very views which most 
naturally suggest themselves to his mind. 

But how shall a man acquire this knowledge of the 
human heart, which shall enable him most effectually 
to address men ? It is, I suppose, greatly a gift of God. 
It is one of the talents which God gives to him whom 
he designs for a preacher of the gospel. Without it, a 
man may preach correctly, logically, and beautifully, 
but it is all abstract discussion, which leaves the heart 
untouched, and shows that God did not design the man 



312 IMPORTANCE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 

for a preacher, and the gifts and callings of God are 
without repentance. 

Yet, granting that this particular bias of mind is a 
gift of God, it is bestowed in different degrees, and 
like every other talent, is capable of cultivation. Much 
may be done by the study of the Scriptures, and bring- 
ing our hearts into daily communion with them. Much 
may be done by self-examination, turning our thoughts 
inward, and observing honestly the effect of truth upon 
ourselves. If a man wants to know the human heart, 
he has the means always at hand — let him look into his 
own. I know of no preacher who manifests a deeper 
insight into human nature than Massillon, who secluded 
himself from the world and lived almost entirely in his 
cell. When he was asked how he, who saw so little of 
men, should be so intimately acquainted with the most 
retired recesses of the human heart, he replied that he 
learned it all from the study of himself. We all are 
guilty of a twofold fault in this respect. In the first 
place we do not retire within ourselves to observe the 
workings of passion and conscience, and in the next 
place, we do not think the knowledge that we thus 
obtain of any value, or we are ashamed to use it, lest it 
should reveal our own imperfection. That man would 
be an unusual, as well as a most effective preacher, who, 
if endowed with any intensity of feeling, should, with- 
out of course the most remote allusion to himself, pre- 
sent his own experiences, the workings of indwelling 
sin, the conflict between sin and holiness, the ineffectual 
struggles to grow better, the humblings of the soul after 
backsliding from God, the doubts and fears which daily 
beset him, the victory over temptation and the means 



KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONGREGATION. 313 

of deliverance, the glimpses of the better land, and the 
joy of the soul when she holds intimate communion 
with the Eedeemer. He who will do this with entire 
simplicity and devout earnestness of purpose, may be 
sure that he will be designated as a man of intimate 
acquaintance with the human heart. 

But the preacher has to do not only with men in 
general, but with particular men, the men of his own 
congregation, the men now before him. They have 
their own peculiar biases, temptations, and trials. He 
needs to become intimately acquainted with their pecu- 
liar state of mind, that he may bring forth from the 
treasury things suited to their wants, and adapted to 
their individual necessities. Hence the need of pas- 
toral visitation, and religious conversation with all the 
members of his flock. It is from neglect of this special 
duty that our sermons are apt to be abstract discus- 
sions, addressed neither to men as men, nor to any 
man in particular. He who will cultivate the habit 
of intimate acquaintance with the religious condition 
of his own people, will never be in want of subjects 
nor of the most effective means of bringing them before 
an audience. He will find in the conversation of the 
sick, the afflicted, the sorrowing, and the bereaved, end- 
, less illustrations of the truth of the Scriptures, and will 
be enabled to bring the word of God home to the 
bosoms of men in a way of which the abstract, general 
preacher can form no conception. I have heard a min- 
ister of the gospel relate the following incident. He 
had occasion to visit a pious member of his church who 
had lost a daughter, the only child of her mother, and 
she was a widow. The bereaved parent gave him a 

14 



314 HOW TO APPLY THE TRUTH. 

narrative of the child's life, how, for so many years, she 
had been her only earthly solace, and specially with 
great simplicity described her feelings when the daugh- 
ter, who had from infancy laid in her bosom, was for 
the first time separated from her for a single night. 
Soon after, the minister had occasion to use the paren- 
tal relation in order to illustrate some scriptural truth, 
and he described the feelings of a mother as nearly as 
possible in the words he had so lately heard. The ap- 
peal went to the heart of every mother in the house, 
and touched sensibilities that were not often aroused. 
The wonder did not soon subside that a young man 
should know any thing about the inmost feelings of 
the heart of a mother. 

So much then for a knowledge of the audience. 
Suppose now this to be acquired, the two things are 
distinctly before the mind of the preacher — the truth 
of revelation on the one hand, and this particular peo- 
ple in their present state on the other. He desires to 
bring this truth into contact with these hearts. How 
shall he do it ? It is an original effort of mind, and 
can not be simplified or explained. Some suggestions, 
however, may lead us more readily to the exercise of it. 
In the first place, much depends on the resolute de- 
termination of the mind itself. Here is a work for the 
mind to do, and the mind must do it. It can not and 
shall not be let off from its work. It can not be al- 
lowed to play with it. It can not be permitted to 
think for a few minutes and then take up a novel, or a 
newspaper, or run over to the neighbors to make a call, 
or turn away to write a letter, or run into the other 
room to play with the children, or make a kite for the 



BENEFIT OF PERSEVERANCE. 315 

older boy. The mind must be kept down to this par- 
ticular work. The door must be shut and bolted. 
Every distracting occupation must be laid aside. The 
man must put himself to the work, and determine that 
it must be done. He must then fix his mind upon the 
truth, and the object to be accomplished by it, and 
think, think, think, until he sees his way through the sub- 
ject, and the train of thought is plain to his own mind. 

This may seem a hard lesson. It is so at first. It 
will take time and self-denial, and severe mental labor. 
But having been done once, the second time it will be 
less difficult, and soon the formation of a train of 
thought will become almost a matter of amusement. 
There is no mental exercise which yields a richer re- 
J ward than this, none which more surely cultivates 
vigor, acuteness, and alertness of mind. Any man 
who will resolutely determine to train himself 4 in this 
manner, will not be disappointed. 

One thing here deserves to be remembered. A man 
who has taken a text and commenced this sort of labor 
is strongly tempted, if he does not readily develop a 
train of thought, to leave it and take another, which 
seems to him much more manageable. He turns from 
the first to the second. When he attempts to con- 
struct a sermon from the second, he finds the same 
difficulty, and more readily turns to a third. Thus, 
after repeated trials, he consumes more than the time 
which would have been sufficient to complete the first, 
and has not yet accomplished any thing. His labor 
J then, thus far, has been entirely thrown away. Nor is 
Ithis all. His mind has lost confidence in itself. It has 
| been overcome by difficulties, and is by so much, less able 



316 self-reliance: 

in future to overcome them. The habit of mental 
quiddling has been strengthened, and the man is 
much less fit than at the beginning to do any intel- 
lectual labor. Let me then advise the young preach- 
er, having taken a text and fixed his mind upon it, 
never to leave it. Go through with it at all hazards. If 
you can not make what you wish of it, at least make 
something. You may, it is true, do badly. You may 
spoil a sermon, but you will have rendered yourself less 
liable to spoil a sermon in future. Never yield to the 
devices and tricks to which the mind naturally resorts 
for the sake of shirking labor. Keep your mind 
steadily at work, and it will soon love work. 



IMPORTANCE OF SELF-RELIANCE. — SAVING FRAGMENTS OF THOUGHT. — 
INTRODUCTION AND CLOSE OF SERMONS. — STYLE PROPER FOR SERMONS. 
— MISTAKES ON THIS SUBJECT. 

In my last paper, I endeavored to set before my 
brethren what was necessary, when we have before us a 
text, and an object to be accomplished by it, and no 
train of thought is apparent. We must then set our- 
selves deliberately at work, and think it through. I 
will add, do not, in such a case, run to books to aid 
you. Go not down to Egypt for help. Your help is in 
yourself, under the direction of the Spirit of Grod. The 
more you rely on yourself the stronger will you become, 
and you will use your strength with greater skill. Let 
A and B be two preachers of equal talents and advan- 
tages. A relies on himself, and whether it be much or 



ITS ADVANTAGES. 317 

little which he produces, it is all his own. B dares not 
rely upon himself, but always goes to the best authors 
for ideas when he attempts to make a sermon. For the 
first year B may be esteemed by far the best, most ac- 
curate, and the most finished preacher. Look at them 
again in ten years. B has remained where he was ; he 
struck twelve the first time, and he can not go beyond 
it. A has steadily advanced in power and skill, and 
has already passed his companion. People have found 
out that there is in him something original, and out of 
the beaten track. It has been ascertained that he 
thinks for himself, and hence, in other matters besides 
preaching, men think his opinion worth having. He is 
on an ascending path, the other is on a level plain, 
with a gradual descent at the further extremity. The 
case of A and B is a very common one. 

But I hope that none of my readers will be led to 
the belief that a sermon can not be prepared without a 
process such as I have described. The fact is far other- 
wise. I have mentioned a strong case, to show what 
we are to do when we have a certain text in our minds, 
and feel it to be a duty to preach from it, and yet the 
train of thought does not present itself. If, however, 
our minds are earnestly fixed upon our business, if the 
condition of our people is ever in our recollection, and 
especially if a part of every day is employed in pastoral 
visitation, and that visitation is employed in personally 
religious conversation, subjects and modes of treating 
them will be rising before us daily. Texts, with the 
proper points of discourse derived from them, will sug- 
gest themselves in walking, in riding, at the bedside of 
the sick ; or if we are employed in secular occupations, 



318 FRAGMENTS OF THOUGHT. 

while we are holding the plow or gathering in the har- 
vest, in the shop or in the factory, in the mart of 
business or the counting-room. If our hearts are fixed 
upon the subject, nothing will more readily spring up 
in our minds than sermons. 

But, it is evident that while this is the general fact, 
it may frequently happen that the right sermon may 
not occur to us in the right place. Hence the import- 
ance of husbanding our resources, and having always 
on hand a supply for the time of need. We may ac- 
complish this, as I have said before, by keeping near us 
a blank book, in which to record any text that occurs 
to us in reading the Scriptures, or in our pastoral vis- 
its. Sometimes we may write down only the text and 
the subject to which it refers, at other times the 
divisions of the subject as they at the moment occur to 
us, and sometimes a full plan of a sermon, if the sub- 
ject seems to spread itself out before us. A book of 
this kind will be found a great help to us, and will 
frequently save us from fruitlessly employing half a day 
in looking up a text. Besides this, it is well for a min- 
ister to have always on his table a few sheets of paper 
sewed together for the purpose of noting down any 
thought which occurs to him that may be used in 
preaching. Three or four sheets of common foolscap 
folded lengthwise is the best for this purpose, and I am 
persuaded that a man who will once make the trial of 
using so simple an aid, will not readily be without it. 
It is told of the first President Edwards, that he was 
extremely careful to allow no thought to escape him 
which he supposed might be useful in the course of his 
studies. He found that valuable suggestions, infer- 



INTRODUCTION OF A SERMON. 319 

ences, and inquiries frequently occurred to him in his 
daily walks. To rescue them from forgetfulness he 
adopted the following expedient : he never went to 
walk without taking with him blank paper, a pencil, 
and some pins. If a thought occurred to him which he 
considered worth preserving, he would tear off a bit of 
paper, write down the thought, and pin the paper on 
his sleeve. It is said that he would sometimes return 
from a walk with both sleeves, from shoulder to 
wristband, covered with these bits of paper. He 
then retired to his study to examine and arrange 
them, and record them in a common-place book which 
he appropriated to this purpose. 

In preparing a sermon, we should beware of too long 
an introduction. A minister sometimes fears that he 
shall not be able to find material for a sermon of the 
ordinary length, and hence he prolongs the first part 
by long discussions on the context, or any other mis- 
cellaneous matter which happens to occur to him. This 
is dry and uninteresting to his audience, and they be- 
come weary before he really begins his work. A 
preacher of this kind was once asked by Dr. Stillman 
to preach for him. The brother declined on account 
of his inability to meet the expectations of Dr. Still- 
man's congregation. " 0," said the Doctor, " you will 
do well enough, if you are only willing to say your 
best things first/' He took the advice and suc- 
ceeded. 

The close is a most important part of a discourse. 
Whatever may have been the subject, we should here 
endeavor to fix it with a nail in a sure place on the con- 
sciences of our hearers. If we have not preached what 



320 CONCLUSION OF A SERMON. 

can be thus impressed, we have not probably delivered 
a gospel sermon. If we know our people as we ought 
to know them, we shall, instinctively, feel that there 
are persons there to whom the truth especially applies, 
and we shall impress it upon them with all the power 
the Lord has committed to us. It is of no use to per- 
suade ourselves that the hearers will apply it for them- 
selves, we must do it for them. We must aim at 
bringing them to a resolution, not six months or ten 
years hence, but now, and here. Why should not the 
sinner now repent and believe, why should not the saint 
now lay aside every w 7 eight and the sin that easily be- 
sets him ? Now is the time to urge every motive, to 
press home every consideration, that can be derived from 
heaven and hell, from time and eternity. Never close 
a sermon until you are conscious of having done your 
duty ; never bid adieu to your audience until you can 
say, I am pure of the blood of all men, especially of 
those who now hear me. Surely, a minister at the close 
of every sermon ought to be able to say this, for there 
is almost always some soul present whom he will meet 
no more, until both he and his hearer stand together 
at the judgment-seat of Grod. 

As I have before remarked, when the train of 
thought is completed, the chief labor of making a 
sermon is performed. The rest is nothing more than 
clothing it with language. This is done either 
orally or by writing. Of the separate advantages of 
these methods I have already written, and I need 
scarcely refer to it again. It, however, seems strange 
that after having thought out a course of remark, a 
man should be obliged to write it all down, before he 



ORAL AND WRITTEN SERMONS. 321 

can communicate it to others ; I say a man, I mean a 
minister, for no other man ever feels the need of this 
sort of aid. No speaker at the bar, or in the senate, or 
on the platform, would ever hope to interest an audience 
for five minutes in this manner. I must, therefore, 
urge that every preacher should learn to preach, that 
is, address men from oral and not written preparation. 
If he insists upon writing let him write, but let him by 
all means acquire also the unwritten style of address. 

The language of a sermon should be that of popular 
address, plain, simple, and easy to be understood. It 
should approach as nearly as possible to that which the 
hearers use in thinking, and ordinary conversation, pu- 
rified, of course, from vulgarity and provincialisms, from 
cant, slang, and technicality. This is the style best 
adapted to any miscellaneous audience. It was greatly 
owing to his mastery of this style that the writings of 
William Cobbet exerted such an influence over the 
people of England. Now, whether a sermon be deliv- 
ered from written or unwritten preparation, the style 
should be the same. To this I know the objection will 
be made, how shall a minister then learn to be a fine 
writer ? I answer, writing for the press, and writing for 
an audience, are very different things ; and in preaching 
we are to use the style best adapted to preaching. Be- 
side, did Christ ordain the ministry of the word for the 
sake of making fine writers ? Have we a right to make 
the ministry of reconciliation a means for the acquisi- 
tion of rhetorical reputation ? If a man wishes to be a 
fine writer, let him write reviews, dissertations, or any 
thing else, but let him choose for his medium of com- 
munication in the pulpit, that mode of address which 

14* 



322 DEFECT OF MODERN PREACHING. 

will come most directly horne to the hearts and con- 
sciences of his hearers. 

The vice of preaching at present, in most of our pul- 
pits, is that we do not aim correctly. We strive to 
please the few, and not the many, and the result is 
that the conscience of both parties is unmoved. The 
pulpit is dying of the proprieties. We dare not intro- 
duce an anecdote into a sermon. We shrink from an 
illustration, unless we can account it classical. We are 
averse even to the delineation of character, lest we 
should detract from the dignity of the pulpit. When 
a man is afraid of losing his dignity by attending to 
his own business, we generally think that he has very 
little to lose. We fear that the pulpit is liable to create 
a similar impression. Look at the highest example of 
preachers. How simple is the teaching of Christ, how 
perfectly adapted to the audience by which he was sur- 
rounded. How it abounds in illustrations, parables, 
and even every-day proverbs, so that the common 
people heard him gladly. Paul tells us himself how 
he preached at Corinth and Ephesus, and he is surely a 
good model for a cultivated man. Look at Bunyan, one 
of the most eloquent and effective preachers of his 
time, how plain, how simple, how earnest, and yet- how 
full of incident and illustration were his discourses. 
Observe President Davies, how plain, forcible, earnest 
and direct were his sermons. We sacrifice vivacity and 
interest to a vague pedantic notion of what is proper 
for the pulpit, as though a preacher of the gospel were 
lecturing to a class on the proprieties of rhetoric. Is 
it not time that a change came over us, and that a 
preacher aimed more at interesting and converting 



DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 323 

men, and less at the reputation of refinement of style, 
and exquisiteness of propriety ? A minister once said 
that a sermon without a fault would spoil a revival. 
Are not such sermons one reason why revivals are so 
rare among us ? 



LI. 

DELIVERY OF A SERMON. — THE NATURAL TONES OF EMOTION.— LENGTH 
OF SERMONS. — ALL THE SERVICES OF WORSHIP TO BE IN HARMONY WITH 
THE SERMON. — FOPPERY. — TALKING- IN THE PULPIT. 

I have in the previous papers stated the principles 
on which a sermon is to be constructed. It may, how- 
ever, be proper to remark, by way of explanation, that 
it is by no means to be supposed that a minister should 
never preach unless he has had time to think out a 
train of thought such as I have suggested. Frequently 
he will be called upon in haste, and sometimes, with 
every effort he can make, he will be unable to satisfy 
himself. In such cases he must do as well as he can, 
and may preach as usefully as after long, and, in his own 
opinion, successful preparation. We are called upon to do 
precisely as well as the providence of God has permitted 
to us. Having done this, we may rest contented. The 
reason for offering the suggestions contained in the pre- 
vious paper is, that we may know what is required in a 
good sermon, that we may attain as near to it as we are 
able, and thus guard ourselves against that unconnected- 
ness of discourse which renders any sermon ineffective. 

When a sermon is prepared, it is to be delivered. It 
may be worth while to offer a few suggestions on the 



324 NATURAL TONES OF EMOTION. 

subject of delivery. It is a common remark, that preach- 
ers acquire a worse delivery than any other men who ad- 
dress their fellow-citizens in public. How far this is just, 
it may be hard to determine. Suppose, however, a lawyer 
at the bar should read his plea, or the speaker at a polit- 
ical meeting should read his speech, just as ministers read 
their sermons, would they be at all endured ? Or, sup- 
pose that, in an ordinary meeting of friends, any one 
should attempt to converse in the precise tones of voice 
which men use in the pulpit, would not the whole com- 
pany stand amazed ? When men preach without notes, 
it is not commonly as bad, but here there is frequently 
some evil habit which very much detracts from the effect- 
iveness of the discourse. One speaks so rapidly that it is 
difficult to follow him, another drawls, another has a 
solemn ministerial tone, to which all his sentences are 
subjected : one is unmoved when uttering the most sol- 
emn truth, another is boisterous from beginning to end, 
and as much excited while uttering the most common 
remark, as in delivering the most solemn announcement. 
Now all this is unfortunate. Whoever attempts to im- 
prove a brother minister, should pay special attention 
to these defects, and labor assiduously and faithfully to 
correct them. 

The great defect of all our speaking, is the want of 
naturalness. When we become confined to written dis- 
course, this is almost inevitable. Men can not read as 
they speak. The excitement of thought in extemporary 
speaking awakens the natural tones of emotion, and it 
is these natural tones which send the sentiment home 
to the heart of the hearer. Any one must be impressed 
with this fact who attends a meeting of clergymen 



FOUNDATION OF GOOD ST E A KING. 325 

during an interesting debate. There is no lack of 
speakers on such occasions, and no one complains that 
he can not sj^eak without notes. It is also remarkable 
that they all speak well, for they speak in earnest, and 
they speak naturally. We have sometimes thought, if 
these very brethren would speak in the same manner 
from the pulpit, how much more effective preachers 
they would become. In the pulpit we tend to a solemn 
monotony, which is very grave, very proper, very minis- 
terial, but it is very wearisome to the vocal organs of 
the speaker, and to the ear of the hearer, and its tend- 
ency is decidedly soporific. We frequently hear a dis- 
course delivered even with a good deal of earnestness, 
when not a single word has been uttered in a natural 
tone of the voice. 

The tones which lie at the foundation of all good 
speaking, are the tones of earnest conversation. Here 
we never drawl, or fall into tone, or sing-song, but speak 
out what we mean, with the pauses and emphases which 
most readily convey the sense, modifying every sen- 
tence by our own feelings and the impression which we 
desire to produce upon the hearer. This is the basis of 
all good speaking. If a man could carry these tones 
into the pulpit, rendering them somewhat more grave, 
as becomes the solemnity of the subject, speaking more 
slowly, as he must do if he would be heard by a large 
assembly, abating somewhat of the suddenness of tran- 
sition, and rising, when the occasion demands it, to an 
impassioned and sustained earnestness, he could not 
fail to be a most attractive preacher. This, then, should 
be the great object of a preacher, to address an assem- 
bly in the tones and the manner which he would use in 



326 AIMING AT IMMEDIATE EFFECT. 

earnest conversation. If we can only attain this excel- 
lence, every other will follow as a matter of course. If 
he once learns to stand up before an audience, and 
speak to them freely, without embarrassment on the one 
hand, or pompousness on the other, simply as any man 
might rise and address his fellow-men on a subject of 
importance, he may proceed from this to the highest 
efforts of eloquence, or at least to as high efforts as have 
been granted to his particular endowment. In order to 
impressiveness of delivery, however, it is essential that 
a man aim at immediate effect. No man can be elo- 
quent if he be affirming truth which may be of use 
some ten years hence. He thus excludes all use of the 
emotions, for there is nothing for the emotion to do. 
His discourse becomes a mere abstract discussion, ad- 
dressed to the intellect, and having no bearing on pres- 
ent action. When Demosthenes closed one of his ora- 
tions, the whole audience burst into a unanimous shout, 
uttering simultaneously the words, "Let us march 
against Philip." If he had contented himself with dis- 
cussing matters and things in general, telling them 
what might be necessary to be done sometime or other, 
they would have gone away quietly, remarking upon 
the beauty of his sentences, and the melody of his 
voice, and have complimented him upon " the success of 
his effort/' Three days afterward, hardly any man in 
Athens would have been able to give an intelligent 
account of his discourse. 

A word may be said respecting the length of ser- 
mons. Cecil remarks that a written sermon should not 
exceed thirty or thirty-five, and an unwritten sermon 
forty-five minutes. This is probably a judicious direc- 



OF UNITY IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 327 

tion. As sermons are of frequent occurrence, and as they 
had better be confined to a single topic, or to a phase of 
a topic, the length of time which they occupy may profit- 
ably be confined within these limits. It is of small benefit 
to an audience to be wearied with the length of a sermon. 
A preacher should always bear this in mind, and by no 
means continue his discourse after his hearers have lost 
the power of attention. Sinners are rarely converted 
or saints edified, when they are half asleep. 

The nature of the sermon governs all the other exer- 
cises of public worship. The object of the preacher is 
to produce a single impression. We all know how diffi- 
cult it is to fix religious truth in the mind of man, 
especially when the reception of that truth imposes the 
necessity of corresponding action. We all know how 
easily the mind is diverted from the subject of discourse 
to every passing trifle, how soon a train of association 
arises and leads the mind far away from the words which 
are falling upon the ear. Now, of this the preacher 
should be aware. He should have every other part of 
the service so ordered as to cooperate with the sermon 
in producing one effect ; and every source of distraction 
should be carefully avoided. 

If we adhere to these principles, we shall of course 
select such Scriptures for reading as are conducive to 
the main design. The hymns should prepare the mind 
for the subject that is to follow. The tunes should 
express the emotion, uttered in the hymns. For this 
purpose the old hymns, enriched by innumerable solemn 
associations, are greatly to be preferred. The more di- 
rectly every thing bears upon the point to be attained, 
the greater will be the effect. And on the contrary, 



328 CONDUCT OF A MINISTER 

every thing is to be avoided which would lead the mind 
of the audience in a different, especially an opposite 
direction. Music which expresses no sentiment, but 
only exhibits the skill of the performer, especially music 
that awakens associations of the opera or theater, is 
sufficient to destroy the effect of the most solemn dis- 
course, if, indeed, solemn discourses are ever found in 
such company. Notices, announcements of intention 
of marriage, etc., etc., if they must be made a part of 
the service of God, should be put as far out of the way 
as possible, that they may not interfere with the unity 
of design which should govern a religious service. 

I hope I may mention without offense that the con- 
duct of a minister in the house of God is of more 
importance than is commonly supposed. There is no 
holiness conferred by licensure or ordination. A min- 
ister is just as frail and erring a man as any of his 
brethren. If he attempts to separate himself from 
them by manner or address, by wearing any particular 
garb which shall create an artificial reverence for him 
or his office, he is welcome to all that he gains by it. 
But while this is so, it is yet to be remembered that the 
business of a minister is one of passing solemnity. No 
man should presume to address men on the subject of 
their interests for eternity without feeling deeply and 
earnestly the momentous nature of the truth which he 
discusses. This state of mind will give to his whole 
demeanor an aspect of simplicity and sobriety which 
becomes him as an ambassador of Christ. He will 
sedulously avoid all tricks and awkwardnesses which 
would detract from the effect of his message. His 
dress, like that of any other well-bred man, will be such 



IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. 329 

that no one would be tempted to remark upon it. It 
has been well said that no one is well-dressed if his 
dress attracts notice, and the remark is specially true 
of a minister. Foppery of every kind, whether dis- 
played in extreme care or in extreme negligence, is 
always to be avoided. Either of them shows that a 
man wishes to attract attention to his person. A sus- 
picion of this kind detracts immeasurably from the 
usefulness of a minister. 

There is another practice to which I regret to refer. 
It is the habit of talking in the pulpit when two or 
more ministers occupy it together. We frequently see 
two or three ministers engaged in earnest and appar- 
ently trivial conversation before the services commence, 
and in the intervals of singing. They appear to be 
looking together over the audience, and making re- 
marks upon it, or upon some particular person or per- 
sons whom they discover in the midst of it. Or, it may 
be that after the sermon they are talking of the dis- 
course. Now what a tempest of righteous indignation 
would it arouse in the bosom of a minister, if his people 
should act thus in the house of God. But I would ask, 
with all deference, what distinction is to be made here 
between the minister and his people ? Is he not at 
least as strongly bound to show reverence in the house 
of God as those to whom he ministers ? Is not the 
law for one precisely the law for the other ? Nothing 
detracts more effectually from the impression of a ser- 
mon, than any thing which betokens levity in the man 
who has delivered it. 



330 WEEK-DAT SEEVICES: 



Ml. 

WEEK-DAY SEEVICES. — LECTURE OR CONFERENCE MEETINGS. — PASTORAL 
VISITS. — CONVERSATION ON RELIGION.— CONCLUSION. 

I have thus far considered the services of the Sab- 
bath. A few more remarks, on some other duties of a 
minister, will complete the suggestions which I propose 
to offer on the present subject. 

The other duties of a minister, in the way of public 
service, appertain to week-day evening, and conference 
meetings. 

In most churches there is an evening service once in 
the week, which is either occupied by the minister in a 
familiar discourse, or by the brethren for conference and 
prayer. Sometimes both are united, the minister occu- 
pying a part, and the brethren the remainder of the time. 

These meetings are of great importance to the spirit- 
ual prosperity of the church. Christians are prone to 
lose the impression of one Sabbath before the next 
Sabbath arrives. An intermediate meeting of some 
sort is useful to break the hold of the world upon the 
heart, and turn the thoughts upon God and eternity. 
Such meetings should by all means be encouraged, and 
they will be found to have great effect upon the soul 
of the believer. 

The preaching, on such occasions, may be more fa- 
miliar than on the Sabbath. The audience is com- 
posed of men and women who have turned aside from 
the pressure of worldly business for the sake of spiritual 
refreshment. They need it, and they should have it. 
Dry discussion and learned interpretation are here out 



THEIR DESIGN AND ADVANTAGE. 331 

of place. Practical or experimental truth is far more 
apposite. Something is needed which shall enable the 
man, with a deeper sense of Christian obligation, and a 
firmer hold upon Christian hope, to enter anew upon 
the cares of every-day life. He who will devote him- 
self to furnishing this refreshment to pilgrims on the 
way to Zion, will not lose his reward. 

Meetings for prayer and conference have a similar 
effect. The gospel requires that a Christian should be 
not only a receiver, but a dispenser of spiritual benefits. 
By watering others he is also watered himself. By un- 
folding those views of truth which at the present most 
deeply affect his own mind, he himself becomes more 
strongly impressed by them ; new trains of devotion 
are awakened in the minds of others, and a community 
of feeling is created in the members of a church. In 
this manner, also, the gifts of a church are called into 
active exercise, and those w T ho have any talent for pub- 
lic address are readily discovered. Such meetings as 
these are the nurseries of the ministry. 

Only a day or two since I received a letter on this 
subject from a pious and efficient layman, whose praise 
is in all the churches, and who has been honored as the 
means of the conversion of sinners beyond most clergy- 
men. The letter is so apposite to the matter in hand 
that I can not resist the temptation to transcribe a part 
of it : " When, as is too generally the case, the prayer 
and conference and covenant meetings are neglected, I 
find that the ministers too often either pay no attention 
to these meetings, or, if they attend them, they occupy 
all the time, and prevent laymen, especially young ones, 
from participating in them. It is with me a most la- 



332 COMING BEFORE THE CHURCH. 

mentable fact that a very large portion of the male mem- 
bership sinfully refrain from ever opening their lips in 
any sort of religious service. We have in all our weekly 
papers glowing accounts of the number added by baptism 
to our churches, and I can rejoice in this, but a long ex- 
perience has taught me that a great want exists in the 
general practice of our churches. In thousands of in- 
stances the whole of a Christian profession amounts 
simply to this : an individual is found willing to join 
the church, and is introduced by the pastor, perhaps 
with the consent of the deacons. A very few stereo- 
typed leading questions are asked only by the pastor, 
with a whispered yes or no in reply to them, a listless 
non-negative vote, the baptism, the right hand of fel- 
lowship, a seat at the Lord's Table, the name recorded 
on the church book — and they are in the church, too 
often on the shelf. The work seems now completed, 
while in fact it is only the enlistment : the labor and 
the fighting have hardly begun yet. They have no posi- 
tive specific duties assigned to them ; no one to mark 
their progress or take note of their delinquencies if 
they fail ; no regular plan of operations to employ 
the tongue, the hand, and the heart of every member. 
The Bible is plain enough — c They that feared the Lord 
spake often one to another,' ' exhorting one another/ 
' speaking to yourselves' — but we fail in the practice of 
these duties. Ministers fail in fostering these duties, 
and then often complain that their preaching is power- 
less, without seeing and feeling that the iron must be 
heated before you can work it, that a religious atmos- 
phere, by prayerful, active duty among all the member- 
ship, must be kept up, or nothing can be effectually 



PASTORAL VISITING. 333 

done. Our Methodist brethren have their weekly class- 
meetings, for conference and contributions both, and 
these, I feel assured, are the sources and ground-work 
of the immense increase of that denomination, now 
largely ahead of us, though we had a century or more 
the start of them. Their class-meetings c keep them all 
at it, and always at it/ Here every absentee is noted 
and inquired for, and not one present can be a mute- 
tongued Christian. All participate, and every warm- 
hearted real Christian enjoys it, and here all the talent 
for usefulness possessed by every member must be 
brought out and duly appreciated." These are the 
words of a lay brother, whose opportunities for observa- 
tion have been as large, whose labors have been as 
abundant, and whose sacrifices for the cause of Christ 
have been as great, as those of any Christian of my ac- 
quaintance, at whose feet I would willingly sit for coun- 
sel. I hope they will be duly pondered by all my read- 
ers. If ever we mean to do our duty in the conversion 
of the world, we must be " all at it, and always at it." 
Every brother must do his part of the labor, and then 
the house of the Lord will be builded. 

It may not be amiss to add a word on the subject of 
pastoral visiting, a duty which is in danger of being al- 
most forgotten. When I say pastoral visiting, I do not 
mean merely ceremonial visiting, calling two or three 
times a year on all the members of the congregation to 
inquire after their health, and talk over the events of the 
day, and thus keep up a personal acquaintance with 
our hearers. This is not without its important uses, 
and hundreds of ministers, from the want of it, are al- 
most strangers to their people ; their people lose all 



334 SUGGESTIONS RESPECTING 

personal interest in them ; their preaching wants the 
directness which arises from the speaking of friend to 
friend, and some new attraction draws away now one 
and then another of their congregation. 

I do not, however, refer to this form of visiting, but 
to something more. By pastoral visiting, I do not mean 
merely visiting in the manner I have suggested, but 
visiting as often as practicable every individual of the 
congregation, for the purpose of personal religious con- 
versation. In such visiting, the pastor should make it 
his business to enter into the religious condition of 
every individual. With the Christian he should con- 
verse on the evidences of personal piety, the motives to 
a holy life, the value of souls, and the importance of a 
life of entire consecration of ourselves to Christ. lie 
should warn the believer against the allurements of the 
world, and ascertain, as far as may be possible, his indi- 
vidual state in the sight of God. Frequently he will 
find the pious laboring under doubts and discourage- 
ments — these he should seek to remove. Sometimes 
they are in sorrow and bereavement, in need of the con- 
solations of the gospel — these consolations he will de- 
light to administer. In sickness he will be their com- 
forter, and in the hour of death their dearest friend. 
He will pay particular attention to the children of 
every family, calling every one of them to early repent- 
ance, and pressing home upon each one the gracious 
offer of mercy through the blood of the cross. Such 
conversations they will never forget, and as they grow 
up they will look upon their pastor as their best coun- 
selor and the special well-wisher of their souls. No 
words will fall with such weight on their ear as his, and 
nothing can ever allure them away from his ministra- 



PASTORAL VISITING. 335 

tions. To the worldly and unrenewed in heart, he will 
kindly and yet faithfully speak of the vanity of the 
world, the hollowness of its pleasures, and the treachery 
of its promises, and will urge them, without delay, to 
seek for an interest in Christ. When he has preached 
with peculiar solemnity, he will especially follow up 
the sermon w^ith such conversation, addressed to those 
who seemed to be at all impressed on the Sabbath. He 
will thus attempt to fix in the mind the truth which he 
has publicly delivered, and foster every impulse which 
the Holy Spirit has given to the conscience of his hear- 
ers. Every one of his congregation will be assured, 
from his own personal knowledge, that the great object 
of the minister is the salvation of his soul ; he will hear 
him with tenfold interest, and cleave to him with un- 
dying affection. The preaching of the Sabbath is a 
paid service, a professional performance ; but here, of 
his own accord, as a friend who loves his soul, the min- 
ister seeks to save him from the misery of a lost eternity. 
One of the old ministers of Boston used to say, that on 
the Sabbath his people were like a row of empty bot- 
tles ; he passed along, and with a sponge dashed water 
upon them, and here and there a few drops entered the 
bottle. When he visited them for personal conversa- 
tion, he took up each bottle by the neck, and poured 
the water into it from his pitcher. 

Nor is this all. Like priest like people. If a minis- 
ter does not cultivate the habit cf conversing individu- 
ally with his people on personal religion, they will not 
converse with each other, or with men of the world, on 
this subject. Eeligious conversation will grow out of 
date, and a company of the disciples of Christ will meet 
and converse on every trifling event, without uttering a 



336 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

word on the great salvation. If, however, the minister 
makes the work of saving souls his great business, in 
season and out of season, his people will catch his spirit, 
they will speak often one to another, and words of re- 
ligious warning, expostulation, and encouragement will 
be heard in the office, the sick chamber, the counting- 
room, and the workshop. The disciples of Christ will 
be the salt of their neighborhood, from them will be 
sounded out the word of Grod, and multitudes will be 
added to them of such as shall be saved. 

I have thus fulfilled my promise. I have showed the 
need of ministers in our denomination, the manner in 
which the number of ministers is to be increased and 
their efficacy improved. I have, moreover, very imper- 
fectly, as I am aware, endeavored to set a proper ex- 
ample, by doing what I could to aid the improvement 
of my younger brethren. I trust that this example will 
be followed, and that every minister of Christ will do 
what may be in his power to help those who are begin- 
ning to labor in the gospel. We must work all to- 
gether, and work with a will, if we love the cause which 
Christ has committed to us. Ministers or private breth- 
ren, let us stand in our lot, and give up ourselves, with- 
out reserve, to the service to which God hath appointed 
us. So prays your brother in the Lord. 



THE END. 



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